


Time Travel, Man

by nanianela



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Based on thespywhospies gifsets, Family Fluff, Fluff and Angst, I don't really know I was just craving some family and kid stuff so i wrote this, Kids, M/M, Nephilim, Time Travel, gif and picture usage throughout, not much smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-17
Updated: 2014-12-28
Packaged: 2018-02-25 17:09:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 56,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2629670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nanianela/pseuds/nanianela
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nephilim Henry & James Winchester travel back in time to hunt down a powerful demon who coincidentally hid in the year 2013. The adventure-loving cousins just couldn't pass up an opportunity like that- but how will their fathers react to meeting them?<br/>"Sammy, is there something you want to tell me?"<br/>"I don't know, Dean, why don't you go first?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Here's the link to the page where she keeps all the links for this idea: <http://thespywhospies.tumblr.com/tagged/second%20gen%20winchesters>

**NOTE** : I will be incorporating gifs and pictures throughout this story!   
One more note: As of April, 2015, much of this will have been heavily edited :) Thanks for reading!

It was seemingly a peaceful night, crickets were chirping and a light fog was curling delicately through dark tree branches, and not much could be heard besides the usual rustle of leaves in the cold, dark air. Two young men were the only things that broke this spell of silence- a tall, lanky one with longish, dark brown hair, and a shorter but powerful-looking man with a head of tousled black hair and a sharp jaw. They were running fiercely, pumping their legs as fast as they could as they charged through the dense forest, branches whipping past as their silver blades in hand flashed in the dim moonlight. They were sprinting after a single person, pursuing with hunter-like reflexes.

As the single person tried to quickly change direction, the two weren't very far behind as they skidded amongst the dried leaves and kept following.

"They're getting away!" The shorter one hissed out to the other one, gripping tightly to his blade as he struggled to keep going at this breakneck speed.

"No shit, Sherlock!" The other one quipped back quickly, huffing out breaths as he pushed through a few obstructing branches. "Dad's gonna be fuckin' _pissed_ if we don't gank her." He continued, and the two veered quickly to the right as the hooded figure made another attempt to throw them off her trail. Suddenly, the demon completely vanished, a rush of air blowing past and settling in their absence. The cousins skidded to a stop, their arms pinwheeling as they slid on the dried leaves. They both peered curiously at the place where she had just been a few seconds ago with matching disbelief on both of their faces. They exchanged a glance, both their eyes wide and jaws slightly hanging open.

"Shit, Jimmy!" The tall one exclaimed, blinking at the empty space. "Demons who can teleport- aw, _hell_. This is gonna be a problem." The dark-headed man came up to the spot slowly, his hand cautiously outstretched as he saw something peculiar. The air around where the demon had vanished was different; it had a twisting, twirling and distorted texture like when fresh water begins to mix with salt water at the mouth of a river.

"Not teleporting, HJ. Time-travel." James announced, squatting and cautiously feeling out into the softly wrinkled space, trying to gage exactly when this demon had flown off to as he narrowed his eyes in thought.

"Well, fuck." Henry huffed as he looked up at the dark lace of leaves overhead with a hand fisted in his dark locks. He swiftly slipped his blade back into its leather sheath strapped to the outside of his thigh and looking into the swirling airspace as well.

"It looks like she went back to...2013." James was slow to say the date, as he slowly brought his eyes to meet his cousin's as he stood from his squat. All the usual trickiness was not on Henry's face as he searched James'.

" _Double_ fuck. Do you know what this means?" Henry said, and James frowned slighty, narrowing his deep blue eyes as he stared into the woman-shaped space with wavering air like heatwaves that was slowly beginning to smooth out. They'd lose the trail if they waited for too long, the wrinkle cut across time would smooth completely out again.

"Well?" Henry prompted again, cocking an eyebrow and crouching down so they two were eye-level for once, patronizingly putting his hands on his knees. "What's it gonna be, Bilbo?"

"Shut up, Mr. Jolly Green. I'm thinking." James shot back easily, narrowing his eyes in thought, bringing a hand to his lips and pinching the bottom one as he weighed the options.

They could get the leg up on this demon who they'd been tracking for months, because she was very old and very powerful. Past Sam and Dean would have had to start from square one, and by the time they figured her out a lot of people could get hurt. The only con was that their parents would have to meet them prematurely, would no idea how it all happened.

 _Who gives a damn?_ James thought to himself, making up his mind. _I'd rather have them safe_.

Henry then pulled his arm out, his big hand palm-up, inviting his cousin to take his hand.

"We can't lose all the progress we've already made." Henry shrugged. "So, you're comin'?" Henry grinned and lifted his eyebrows. He loved adventures like this.

Plus, they had to both work to time travel: and it was easiest to share the energy spent it they had skin contact with the other.

"We're killing this time-hopping black-eyed bitch once and for all." James added, grinning just a little from the side of his mouth.

"Hey, cuz-" Henry began. " _I can show you the world, shining, shimmering, splendid-_ "

"Oh, you're _fucking_ annoying, you know that?" James laughed, and finally slapped his hand into Henry's.

"Oh, I know. Come on, slowpoke, time's-a-wastin'." Henry winked, and the two vanished with a flash of bright white light and a loud whump like a rug being shaken out with a snap.

* * *

It wasn't exactly a smooth landing for the both of them. They bumped hard a few times on the ride over, like a stone skipping on a lake. They tumbled when they arrived at the motel room where they'd located their fathers, landing very unelegantly with a flash of white in a tangled mess of limbs and wings.

"Dude, your damn legs are crushing me!" James huffed irritably, trying to detangle himself and eventually letting his inner-Dean come out as he shoved the lanky body off of him with a harsh push, which had Henry's foot kick up and the toe of his shoe whapped his ear.

"Bitch, you caused that turbulence!" Henry snipped back, and James was trying to stand up and get out of his cousin's labyrinth of freakishly long limbs.

"What the-" Sam said, straightening up from where he'd been packing his bag and going on the defensive as these mysterious boys had seemingly fallen from the sky, his hand hovering to his gun in its hilt. Dean went on the defensive immediately, straightening up from tying his shoe and reaching for Ruby's blade.

"Great. Not this shit again. Who the hell are you two?" He demanded, his eyebrows furrowing in distrust. He unsheathed the blade and looked out at them like he was just about ready to lunge and run them through.

"Hey, man. Chill. We're not demons." Henry said casually from where he sat on the floor, quickly pulling on the collar of his shirt to show the anti-possession tattoo on his chest, and James quickly followed suit. James averted his eyes from Dean and offered his cousin a hand to help him stand up. He hadn't even noticed that Dean had pulled out a gun instead once he heard they weren't demons, and next thing James knew he was staring down the barrel of a gun.

"Whoa, whoa!" The dark-haired man said, somewhat alarmed, as he put his palms up innocently and backed away. "No need to get all gunsy with us!"

"I'm gonna ask again. Who the hell are you?" Dean demanded, cocking his gun and holding it outstretched without so much as a waver. He scanned the room, a thought suddenly occurring to him as he saw all the spray-painted sigils on every wall and window.

" _What_ are you? There's no way you could have gotten in here unless you're _human_..."

"We are human, Uncle D. Well, at least part." Henry's voice was confident and almost jeering, although it was light hearted. He finally stood and straightened up, combing a hand through his long, dark brown locks as he stood at his full height. It was hard to tell how tall he would have been when he had been on the floor, but _damn_. He must have been at least six foot three already, and it was clear that he was still young and might even have a few more inches in store. He looked like he was around his low to mid twenties, and the shorter, dark-haired man didn't look a day older than twenty himself, a few years younger than the taller one.

Dean didn't know what to say as the name registered. Uncle D? The taller one continued, sporting a cocky grin and leaning an elbow onto the shorter kid's head, as if he were a banister to rest his elbow instead of a person much shorter than him.

"You slacker. I picked up on most of that damn work getting here, you know." He smirked at James. 

"Getoff!" The dark-haired man mumbled, shoving the arm away and re-tousling his already messy locks. "Yeah, right, Henry. You know I did my fair share!" Henry scoffed, and suddenly arms where flying as they began to rapidly whap at each other like cats. 

"Okay, nobody moves until I get an answer! Who and what the hell are you?" Dean insisted, and Sam looked on from behind him, an enlightening look on his face like he mighy actually be figuring this out already.

"We're half-dicks." Henry answered, grinning as James snorted.

"Excuse me?" Dean insisted, lifting an eyebrow in disbelief. "What the hell are you trying to say here?"

"You know, half-angels. Nephilim, Da-..uh, Dean." James said, reaching back and scrubbing the back of his neck with his hand, and suddenly Dean saw something very peculiar- in that moment, that pair of dark blue eyes looking up at him, he was somehow reminded of... _Cas?_

"I'm Henry John Winchester. And this is my little hobbit couzzie James Samuel Winchester." Henry said with confidence, and James looked up at Dean almost shyly, keeping his hand on the back of his head.

"Surprise?" James said awkardly, lifting his hand to wave but then thought better of it and lowered it quickly to his side once again.

"Hold up, if he's your cousin, and you're both-" Sam started, and he looked a little light-headed for a second as he reached for the nearest piece of furniture to grab onto. "So..."

"Take a _wild_ guess, Pops." Henry's voice was dripping with sarcasm as he leaned casually on a nearby bookcase, crossing his jeaned mile-long legs. "Not like little stubby-legs over here could possibly be yours."

Dean blinked and had a look that clearly said 'are you kidding me?'

"Sammy, is there something you want to tell me?" He said slowly, finally lowering his gun slowly as he took in the two young adults who stood in front of him. The taller one had longer, dark brown hair that was gently curving around his face, a texture right between straight and wavy. His eyes were blue-green and devious-looking, with a smug grin that seemed to be permanently plastered on his face. He was standing casually, his hands tucked into the pockets of his blue jeans, and he was wearing a worn-in black jacket with just a peek of the black-grey-and-white plaid underneath.

"I don't know Dean, why don't you go first?" Sam quipped back, embarrassed, and Dean struggled on how to reply. If they were cousins, that meant.. The other kid, who was probably half a foot shorter and a few years younger than Henry, was looking up to Dean with wide, hope-diamond-blue eyes.

"...It's a boy?" He said, shooting Dean a shy smile and shrugging. He had tousled pitch hair and a sharp jaw with some scruff on his cheeks. He was wearing jeans too, and a dark blue flannel to match his eyes. Dean ran a hand down his face and looked back out at the boys again, making sure they were still there when he opened his eyes. Yup, they were.

" _Cas_!" He called out loudly, looking up at the sky, and Henry snickered.

"I'm gonna love the look on Uncle Cassie's face when he sees us, right Jimmy?" He laughed, elbowing James, who elbowed right back.

 "Hey! No one moves until Cas gets here." Dean growled, annoyed that they were being so damn casual and playful in an obviously hostile situation. "You two better start talking, dammit."

He pulled up a chair and sat backwards on it as he folded his arms on the backrest, observing the two deeply with narrowed eyes. Okay, for one, if this was a trap, it was almost creepy how much detail had gone into it. He could see all of their features clearly had resemblances, and so did their personalities.

"So, you boys are from the future?" Sam cleared his throat and asked uncertainly.

"Yep. It took us both to get back here." Henry answered.

"Oh, this is bullshit. Sam, heaven wants something from us, and all this is some kind of trap." Dean said angrily. How dare they try to trick him and make him feel like he and Cas could really share a son? It just made him even angrier as he looked at the kid in front of him, who was obviously crafted so perfectly he would just have to give in. James blinked at him, donning that "kicked puppy" look Cas usually had. Unfortunately, it was already working.

"They're clones, or- or _something_." Dean explained wearily. "We have to run the tests. Silver, holy water, blood color, the whole enchilada." 

James turned to Henry and crossed his arms. "Wow, okay genius." He rolled his eyes. "Let's just drop this bomb on them literally thirty seconds after meeting them! You couldn't have, _oh, I don't know_ , eased into it a little more?!"

"Come on, couzie, give me a break. What else was I supposed to do?" Henry crossed his arms as well and squared off against his cousin, towering over him, but the dark-haired James wasn't intimidated.

"I wish you got Gabe's height, douchenozzle." He laughed, looking up into Henry's face. "Being a giant sure has made you cocky."

"In more ways than one. Everyone knows tall people have big feet. And you know what they say about big feet.." James had started to laugh huskily, and there was a faint rustle of feathers as Cas finally came into the room.

"I believe the expression ends with "big shoes"." Cas finished for them, looking right to Dean once he'd arrived. "I hope my arrival was punctual enough." He said, but then did a double-take to the two boys he'd first addressed. "Wait-"

The word tumbled from his lips, and instead of facing Dean he swiveled to face the boys. James smiled shyly up at Cas. How the hell was he supposed to address someone who didn't even know he existed? Or had never planned for him to exist? He fiddled nervously with the bottom of his flannel.

"Hiya, Dad." He said quietly, his own blue eyes meeting Cas's.

Cas turned, his expression one of utter puzzlement, to meet Dean's eyes. 

"Cas? You have some explaining to do." Dean prompted with crossed arms, lifting an eyebrow.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of gifs in this chapter! Unfortunately this won't be the case for many of the other chapters, just because I don't have the material. Please let me know what you think :) Thanks for reading!

Cas stared down at the two young men with disbelief in his widened eyes, his arms hanging listlessly in his oversized sleeves.

"They are...they _both_ are.." He was having a hard time forming a coherent thought.

"So, Cas, I don't know if this is some sort of fruse heaven sent to try and get something from us-" Dean was quickly interrupted.

"No, no. It's very obvious, their graces are of human and angel combination. I can see the specifics in the lights of their graces as well- Sam and Gabriel." Cas indicated to Henry, and then narrowed his eyes even more as he gestured to James. "You and... _and_..." A pink blush began to creep onto his cheeks. 

 

"So Cas, um- meet our- uh son. He came from the future." Dean said sarcastically with a dismissive wave, clearly by the way he was saying it he still didn't quite believe it.

Cas was completely silent, just watching and observing him for a second, standing there stiffly.

"Feel free to chip in, Cas. Thoughts?" Dean spoke up, somewhat irritated at his absence of words.

"This doesn't make any sense." Castiel said, narrowing his eyes and coming forward to James.

"Finally, something we agree on." Dean huffed.

Cas cupped James' face into his two palms as he placed his hands on two sides of his cheeks. He observed James, who was looking up to him with wide eyes as he had his face in his hands, tipping it back and side to side all while he stared intently with a critical eyes, trying to find if something was visibly special or different about him.

"Nephilim are outlawed. Most are killed before they even reach adolescence, yet, you must be..."

"I'm twenty. Well, almost twenty-one. My birthday's in a few weeks." James replied with a shy smile. 

"How are you-?" Cas began quietly, staring it him in wonder. 

"...Alive?" He asked for him with a small smile, his deep blue eyes twinkling. "I have good news, dad. God comes back."

The angel looked absolutely shocked, and he dropped his hands from his face and stumbled backward in disbelief.

"He..he..."

"Yup, Uncle Cassie. Gramps comes back, and he makes a few changes upstairs." Henry said with a grin, coming up leaning his elbow on James' shoulder.

"We aren't outlawed anymore. Nephilim, I mean. In fact, we're encouraged-" James continued, but was interrupted again.

" _Encouraged_?" Cas asked, narrowing his eyes and tipping his head to the side like a little bird. "What do you mean, exactly?"

"Yeah, Jamie, you better start talking." Dean growled, still strangely aggravated. The man swept his gaze to look up at him instead, and the little corners of his eyes crinkled up just a little as he smiled up at him.

"The other you calls me Jamie too. Well, future you."

Dean tried not to let him see that that comment kind of melted his heart, and instead lifted his eyebrows and prompted him to continue explaining.

"So, um, encouraged." James started, rubbing his hands together and thinking of the best way to explain it. He glanced over at his cousin for some help, but Henry instead made a very rude tongue-in-cheek blow job motion and then shot him a beaming smirk.

"Shut _up_ , HJ. You know that's not how it works." James laughed, and turned back to Cas and Dean. "Gramps saw how much heaven disliked humans now, and as you know because of Lucifer's punishment, he never intended for that to happen. It wasn't him who outlawed nephilim, it was actually Raphael who did that. Grandpa's first plan to strengthen heaven's bond with earth was to create more... well, creatures that linked the two together."

"Half-dicks, like us." Henry butted in, shrugging. "He figured if there were creatures to serve as a mediator, that angels would interact positively with the humans for once in several millennia."

"It didn't only become a request, it became more of a... requirement. Almost all the angels were required to find and pair up with the most suitable humans to create a whole new generation of nephil with. And you two obviously made the lists for 'most capable humans'." James smiled.

"But, uh..." Dean started, and a pink flush began to already creep onto his cheeks and the tips of his ears. "I'm obviously a dude, and uh..." He coughed, embarrassed, into his fist and tried to continue. "Cas is...uh, well, he's an angel, but he's like, um, a _dude_ angel-"

James opened his mouth and was about to explain when Henry threw his arm out in front of his chest as if he were restraining him from saying anything so soon. "C'mon, Jimmy. Not yet, this is _hilarious_."

Dean clamped his mouth shut and his jaw protruded slightly as he clenched his teeth together. "Henry, you little shit." He said, narrowing his eyes.

"Hey, future you calls me that too!" Henry burst out laughing. "Aw, go ahead and tell him, shortstop. He sure as hell isn't getting angry calmer."

James rolled his eyes but was smiling; Dean could tell James was probably the one who usually kept a cool head out of the two cousins. "Cas chose to pair with you to create the new nephilim generation. And I was a result of a combination of graces, like most angels are. We're...well, the closest Enochian translation is a "Child of Light", as opposed to someone made of organic matter that we call a Child of Earth. Souls are like grace, just way smaller and less powerful." He explained, trying to use hand motions to explain but he eventually brought his fingers to his lips as he tried to think of how he'd explain. "I-well, hm.."

"How does that even work?" Dean blurted, and Cas looked equally confused.

"Angels are beings made of ephemeral light, but angels do not have genetics, they are simply made of recycled grace..." Cas began. 

"Well, me and Henry were born in traditional angel reproduction." James tried to explain. "You didn't talk much about it to me, really. It only came up a few times."

"Okay, so, Cas chose Dean, right?" Sam started, observing Henry intently. "But Gabe chose... _me_?" Henry looked just a tiny bit sad all the sudden, but the small flicker quickly went away as a mask seemed to fall over his emotions.

"He did that to protect you. And Heaven." Henry began. 

Sam brought his eyebrows together. "What do you mean?"

"Well, Pops, you were pretty much already paired with an angel. Lucifer's sword, right?" Henry continued almost bitterly. "So, Dad stepped in and paired with you so Lucifer wouldn't be able to have offspring." That little sad look returned to Henry's face. Sam understood right away; he felt like he was unwanted, just the product resulting from a preventive measure.

"Hey, don't look at me like that." Sam said, feeling a horrible pinch down in his gut. This was his _son_ , and he didn't want him to be hurting like that. Henry looked down at the floor, and when he looked up Dean recognized a very Sam-like puppy dog expression. Sam didn't even hesitate- he surged over and whumped the man into a tight hug. "Aww, dad.." Henry whispered, reaching around him to hug back. 

Dean was observing the scene, a tiny smile on his face. He knew how much Sam had always wanted kids, and he seemed overjoyed to finally have that come true. When Dean looked back down, he was extremely surprised to see James had sat down on the couch and that Cas was gently rubbing James' head, and massaging down to the roots of his hair. James closed his eyes and smiled slightly, looking like a cat enjoying a good rub.

 

 "Um, **_Cas_**? What the hell are you doing?" Dean asked, feeling like he would have laughed had this been a different situation. James looked up at him with wide eyes, prompting for Cas to explain for him. Cas looked at Dean, contemplating on what to say, but instead just looked down at James again.

"Better?" He asked shyly, and James closed his eyes and nodded.

"Ummhm. Thanks for noticing." James shut his eyes and folded his hands over his tummy. 

"Better _what_?" Dean asked, this time he did chuckle a little as James looked up to Cas with his big, prompting eyes and Cas gave in and began to massage his head again.

 

"They are part angel, but still have many of the functions that we do, only usually less power. You are aware that angels have a true form, correct?" Cas continued talking as he rubbed small circles along his son's temples. 

"Yeah, Cas. But-"

"And that our true forms are not necesarily human?" Cas interrupted before Dean could spew more incoherent thoughts. "That we have numerous animal parts, typically even several faces or additional limbs?"

Dean looked down at James again, who had his eyes shut and looked like he was greatly enjoying his little rub-down. "You're saying my son is growing another _head_ or something right now?"

Cas frowned slightly. "No. But it's _faces_ , Dean. 'Heads' implies multiple brains." He gently rubbed in little circles by James' temples with his thumbs, and the young man almost seemed like he would melt any second as he let out a little hum.

"He's going through his first set of Additions. His grace is expanding and embellishing with parts of creatures from God's creation. Kind of like when humans begin to grow in their baby teeth, I guess. Right now, it's stag antlers."

Dean blinked. "I...what?" Dean felt like all of this was ridiculous. How the hell was he going to take care of someone who was half something that he barely had any knowledge about?

"Usually angels go through this at twelve years of age, one of the significant numbers in the testament. But nephilim would most likely be a little late." Cas looked down at James, and he looked like he was proud of him. Apparently this whole "addition" thing must have been a pretty big deal in their angel culture or whatever, Dean inferred. "It's almost over. I can tell." Cas beamed.

James nodded as Cas finally tool his hands away. "Yeah, thanks."

"I can't believe this. Cas, do you believe any of this?" Dean expressed again, and Cas simply shrugged.

"I see the combination of lights that he consists of. It seems credible to me."

"Okay, let's just move onto what I do know about. You said you were a chasing a demon and wound up here, right?" Dean finally changed the subject, and Sam butted in with the next question, going and sitting down on one of the chairs, beginning to straighten up the papers that were strewn all over the desk.

"So you boys hunt, huh?" He said with a hint of sadness in his voice.

"I don't like it." Dean added right away, crossing his arms and remaining standing up as James sat on the couch and Cas continued to gently rub his temples. "Did I even _try_ to keep you both out of it?" He seemed frustrated.

"Uncle D, we're half angels. There's no way you could have kept us out of it." Henry answered, and he then went on to gently bully James again by imitating his expression and rubbing his own forehead and speaking in a baby voice. " _Oh, dad, my first additions are coming in, aww, it hurts so much...rub my tummy and get me some warm milk..._ "

"Shut up, shithead!" James tossed at him, scowling. "Let's just focus on the mission, okay?"

"Okay, well,one thing at a time. How did that demon escape?" Dean asked, crossing his arms and looking from boy to boy. If they were going to be hunters, he hoped he'd at least taught them how to do it right.

The cousins quickly exchanged glances, they were finally reminded of what they'd even arrived here in the first place.

"Why don't you ask Mr. Romeo over there?" James quipped, giving his cousin the side-eye.

Henry ran a hand through his hair and pressed his lips together. "Okay, yeah. That. Well, we were in hot pursuit, and the bitch just went up and disappeared."

"Oh _really_? What about before that, hotshot?" James lifted a dark brow in a very Dean-like way.

"I swear I had my eye on her the whole time." Henry shot back, opening his hands palm-up and shaking them for emphasis. "We were tracking her from a bar, and well..."

"You were checking out some girl again, weren't you? Just like that time with the siren, when she got away?" James was getting flustered, obviously he took his hunting job seriously. 

"No, well, it was because..." Henry jumped in to try and defend himself. 

 "....because some idiot was staring at her ass and not focusing on the job?" James finally crossed his arms and squinted at his cousin. 

"Gramps be damned, couzie! That was _one_ time!" Henry rolled his eyes and plopped down on the couch next to his cousin.  "Bitch was fast! I had my eye on her at the bar, and next thing I know she's gone and high-tailing it into the woods! I'm _sorry_ , okay?"

Dean and Sam did not look amused.

"Well, just tell us how we can gank this bitch. That's why you came here, right? To help us get the leg up on her?" Dean asked. 

James nodded in agreement. "We saw that she's time-traveled, to now. And that's pretty bad."

"Why?" Dean and Sam asked at the same time, and James didn't look like he was looking foward to explaining it to them.

"Well, you guys know of Abbadon, right?"

The two brothers exchanged glances and nodded. "But we put a trap bullet in her skull and chopped her up. She didn't get out, did she?" Dean asked, feeling a bit of fear seize in his gut. If she got out again- she had been the only demon he'd ever encountered that hadn't died when he stabbed her with the demon blade, and he didn't even know where to start in killing her.

"She didn't get out, at least I don't think so. See, the problem is, the demon we were chasing was one of her triplet sisters, her name is Mammon. We think she came to this time to liberate her sister and find their last person in the trio, the third sister named Asmodeus." James continued. 

Dean looked extremely overwhelmed when he'd finished. "So there's _three_ of them?"

"Triplets, yup. They're the daughters of one of the seven princes of hell. That's why they weren't so easily killed by that pretty little butterknife of yours. It belonged to their father." Henry added.

"...So we followed her time-stamp to now. She must be looking for her sister as we speak." James finished. 

"Well, we got Abbadon six feet under and incased in cement, so I don't think you two have to worry about her for a little while." Dean said, covering up the fact that he saw the two boys looked worn out from the trip over and it would probably be best if they took a few hours to rest before running off again.

"Maybe not for tonight, but you're going to need to let us do our job sooner or later, dad." James replied and closed his eyes, he seemed very tired all of the sudden. "We've been tracking Mammon for _months_. I just hope all that work doesn't go to waste."

Dean saw his concerned expression and immediately felt his heart clench in his chest. He had that same look, a look he often saw on Sam's face or in the mirror- sheer determination, the need to keep people safe and get rid of the bad. He liked that he could see that look on his son's face. He just hoped none of this was some kind of trap. 

 

* * *

 

They'd taken the short drive back to the Men of Letters HQ, and it was already almost pitch black when they left the motel after one of their hunts and began the drive home. When the boys weren't almost falling asleep in the backseat they would occasionally burst into the shortest of quibbles.

"Move your stupid foot, HJ!"

"You move _yours_! It smells like french cheese for God's sake!"

"Stop stealing the blankets!"

"Hey, I got way more body mass than you to cover anyway!"

They'd grumble a few more insults before settling it without a word and snuggling down together and trying and sleep.

The brothers didn't say a word to each other about the strange situation as they hopped out and Sam prepared a bed for Henry on one of the couches in the living room and Dean prepared the other.

"Think these will be okay?" Dean asked, and Sam was almost too quick to answer.

"Yup, uh, yeah. They'll be fine out here, these couches aren't so bad."

But it wasn't like they could avoid talking about their pairing with angels forever.

Later that night, Dean got ready for bed himself and also made sure he didn't forget something for James. Dean came quietly into the living room and made sure that James was awake before he'd disturb him. Henry was fast asleep on the couch adjacent to him, splayed on his stomach and snoring softly, but James was up and reading a book in the dim light that was coming in from the reasearch room.

"Hey, Jamie." Dean said quietly, careful not to wake Henry.

James set down the book at looked up at Dean with a slightly startled expression. "Oh. Hi, dad."

Dean sat down on one of the ottomans and placed the tray he was carrying in his lap. "Whatcha reading? And I swear, if it's those books Chuck wrote..."

James laughed softly and his eyes twinkled in the soft light. "No, dad. I'm pretty sure you went out and burned all of those things when you had a day off." He showed him the title, smiling serenely.

" _War and Peace_. It's one of Cas's favorite books too. It... calms me down."

Dean cracked a smile. "You sure you're not Sam's kid?"

James rolled his eyes playfully and set the book on the table next to the couch. "Aw, shuddup."

"I, uh, brought you something." Dean said, taking the little Dixie cup of pain pills and the glass of water and handing it to him. "For the, you know." He indicated at his head once James had taken the two cups in hand. "Uh, growing pains."

"Thanks." James felt immeasurably happy that Dean was this okay with it. He knew it must have been a shock to hear about his angel side and what came with being a baby celestial being. "Sorry if this is kind of weird for you. Not, uh, knowing about all of this."

"Hey, it's okay. Sammy used to get them all the time when he was a teenager. Kid shot up like a friggin' bamboo shoot. Just...uh, let me know what's up, okay?"

James nodded silently and popped the pills into his mouth, then tipped back  a few mouthfuls of water.

"Yeah, I will." James looked into Dean's intensely concerned and protective gaze and quickly spoke up again. "It's really not _that_ bad. It only hurts a little. Don't worry about me."

"So on the angel spectrum, you're still a baby?" Dean asked, and it seemed like so strange a concept.

James shrugged. "I guess. You called it 'teething'. Well, future you." He chuckled and snuggled a little further into his blankets.

"So what about Gabe Junior over there? He's older than you, right? Is he done with it?"

James looked sadly over at his cousin. "He's twenty-four, and no, for him it's different."

Dean lifted an eyebrow and prompted him to keep explaining.

"He's the son of an archangel, they age differently than regular angels. He'll probably get his when he's in his late thirties. But he did get his second and third sets of wings when he was seven." James closed his eyes as if he were remembering. " _That_ was scary."

James remembered how he'd woken up in the middle of the night, because things were getting so loud in Henry's bedroom. James had been three at the time, and he hadn't quite understood all that was going on with his cousin. He was scared as James had grabbed his blanket at pushed his way into his older cousin's bedroom.

He peeped from the doorway and saw his uncle Sam and Henry together on Henry's big-boy bed, and Sam was holding him tightly to his chest as the little dark-haired boy was gripping tightly to his shirt with a fist and burying his head in his shoulder, whimpering, sobbing, his body shuddering.

James felt seized by fear as he'd gripped his blanket tight to his face, watching as Sam firmly kept an icepack on Henry's back. "It's okay, baby. Daddy's here, okay? It's going to be over soon." Sam, with his human eyes, was only able to see the occasional dim shadow as his new wings grew in, but James was able to see everything.

He saw the six stacked wings, three pairs on each side, the topmost layer was bright and shining gold, while the bottom two were downy and somewhat moist, stretching and flapping uncoordinatedly as the newfangled wings tried to figure out what to do with themselves. The bottommost level was what appeared to be a deep, chocolate brown, while the middle was a golden-brown, a gradient of brown and gold.

Sam looked up and had seen James staring in fear from the doorway, his eyes widened as his breathing was coming heavier. "Hey, Jimmy. It's okay. Do you want to come here and give your cousin a hug?"

The three-year-old nodded and quickly came up to Henry, who was still crying quietly in Sam's strong arms.

"Are you okay, Engee?" He asked in a high-pitched voice, he still wasn't quite able to pronounce his cousin's name. He got no response, and James also climbed into Sam's lap and gave his cousin a gentle hug. "They're real pretty, Engee." He'd said, and his cousin had tightly hugged him back. That was the first time that James had really seen his cousin hurting, he always worked hard to mask everything, even when he'd been little.

"I know he can be a cocky bastard, but Henry's seen some shit too." James looked over at his friend's sleeping face. "It isn't easy being an archangel's kid. He always did his best to be like an older brother to me too." He looked up at Dean with a small smile. "He's a good kid, Dad. He can get distracted sometimes, but he's got his heart in the right place."

Dean smiled down at him as he felt his chest start to expand. Sure, at first he hadn't believed it, but after all that explaining and after he got to know them better, there was barely a doubt in his mind.

"Don't worry about that demon tonight, okay Jamie? We can just start working tomorrow." Dean reached over and took War and Peace and tucked it under his arm. "No more reading tonight, okay? I didn't raise you to be such a nerd, did I?" He teased. 

"Nah, that was all Cas." James smiled and pinched his eyes closed.

"We'll help find Mammon tommorow, okay?" Dean said softly.

James nodded slightly in agreement and kept his eyes closed.

"You tired?" Dean asked. 

"Fuckin' exhausted, actually." James sighed. 

"Hey. No swearing like that in this house." Dean raised an eyebrow. 

" _Friggin_ ' exhausted, then." James repeated, his eyes laughing. 

"Alright, I'll letya sleep. G'night, Jamie." Dean said quietly, and patted his shoulder softly before leaving.

" 'Night, dad." James groaned, before snuggling down and faceplanting into his pillow.

Dean had to pause once he was out of the living room, leaning his shoulder up against the wall as he felt his chest expanding with happiness. And before he returned to his own room, he smiled at the ground, pinched the bridge of his nose and let himself have just that one, quiet, elated laugh. 


	3. Chapter 3

Henry was tossing slightly in his sleep, his long legs entangling in the sheets that Sam had thrown over the couch for him. He didn't particularly care for time traveling for this reason- it shook both him and James up pretty badly, even though they'd never talked about it directly and it went mostly unspoken.

James would read War and Peace to try and calm down; he often shoved Henry out of his head when he tried to peer in and figure out what was wrong, but from the one glimpse he'd seen James worried mostly about screwing with the timeline and in turn hurting his family.

Henry always had dreams that disturbed him whenever he was put out of his element, memories that he wished he didn't need to revisit. One night in particular always came back to bite him in the ass; the night that Henry had been seven years old and had painfully acquired his second and third sets of wings. It was a damn hard night for Henry and Sam both.

Sam took the ice pack away, he had almost failed to notice that he was still holding it against the sleeping child's back. He held the seven-year-old closer, then he heard a faint rustling of feathers from behind him and a slight disturbance in the air.

"How's he holding up?" Gabriel asked genuinely in a quiet voice, reaching out and smoothing the locks that were falling into Henry's shut eyes. Henry was breathing slowly, he was shallowly sleeping as his eyes just barely moved underneath his eyelids.

"He's okay. I think he's okay." Sam replied, uncertainly, doing the exact same thing as Gabriel and he planted a little kiss on Henry's clammy forehead. "I think he's more scared than anything, really."

His eyes met Gabriel's and he smiled just a little. "Thank you for coming. I know it's against the rules to be here." He frowned a little as he said this and gently smoothed down Henry's curved back, making a gestimate as to where his budding wings would be.

"Hey, you know me. I'm a natural-born rule breaker." Gabriel joked, reaching out and actually touching the wings that were invisible to Sam. He weighed the surprisingly heavy wing on his palm, and Henry cooed just a little in his sleep as Gabe helped stretch out the golden-brown downy baby wing into a more comfortable position from the awkward twist it had been in before.

"He's looking okay, I think its over. They're out in full, the feathers are dry..." Gabriel reached out and smoothed down the row of wings, his hands bump-bump-bumping along over each of the three wingtips. He looked sad all of the sudden as he reached over and pulled the boy to rest on his own chest.

"C'mere, sweetheart. Aww, they look so pretty." He said quietly as he tucked the exhausted child into his chest. "He still believes that I'm with you for requirement, right?" Gabriel asked uncertainly, continuously smoothing down the row of gradient wings as Henry's sleepy head lolled onto his shoulder. Sam frowned but nodded.

"Good. It's easier if that's what he believes. Hearing that _my daddy loves me very much, but he just can't be here right now_ is probably what made me so bitter against my family in the first place. I don't want him to try and find me either. I'm fighting the Big Bads, creatures that even Dad has difficulty killing. I'm working with Dad and Mikey now, and if these creatures ever found out about Henry..."

Sam nodded and reached out to sweep hair from Henry's face. "They could use him against you. I know, you've told me before." There was a quiet moment as Henry stirred just a little and wrapped his arms tightly around Gabriel's neck, Gabe smiled sadly and wiped the crusty tear tracks from his cheek with his thumb.

"He's taking after you already. He almost got suspended for the kind of tricks he pulls on his second grade classmates." Sam laughed, and Gabriel grinned and looked down at his wings again. Sam made no move to take Henry back yet, he knew Gabe needed these little moments with his son where he could take them.

"You know, I thought his wings would stay golden for all six of them, like mine. His birthwings were gold. But the bottom two...gold-brown and dark brown." He smiled and his eyes met Sam's. "That's probably from you. I don't know if I'd told you I'd never had a nephilim before."

"You have told me that." Sam replied, smiling just a little. The fact that he'd chosen him for his first nephilim ever...

Henry was stirring, too much to be able to fall back asleep. Gabe looked a little panicked, he wasn't sure if he should just give Henry back to Sam and disappear, but he made his decision. He would stay, after such a rough night the kid had earned it. Henry groaned groggily and opened his greenish-blue eyes slowly.

"Hey, baby." Gabriel said quietly, and Sam could just feel the heartbreak in his words. Henry blinked up at him, and his little wings shuffled and stretched, fumbling, similiar to the uncoordinated movements of a infant's hands.

"Dad?" He asked quietly, his face lighting up.

"You've been such a strong boy, Henry. You were so brave." He said, wrapping his own six pure gold wings around the two of them. Henry looked around them at the wings and marveled at them, his eyes widening.

"Wow..." Henry breathed, reaching out tentatively and running his hand over the closest wing, taking in the pure gold feathers as they bounced back into place after he'd smoothed them down, gold flashing in little shimmers from the refracted light.

"Yours are going to be big and strong one day too. You'll see." Gabriel explained, tightening the wall of golden feathers around them and pulling Henry closer, not saying anything as he pressed his cheek to the top of his hair.

"Don't leave, dad. Please." Henry cried, his own wings stretching and flapping, the little feathered additions barely covering his back. A fresh tear popped from his eye and quickly smoothed down his cheek in a glimmering trail. "Please. I'm scared. I...I don't know what I am." His voice was more watery now, wavering as he sniffed and another tear rushed down his cheek. "Why are there so many wings, dad? Jimmy only has two...and it hurts so badly..."

"You're my son. And that means you and James are going to be very different." Gabriel tried to explain. It almost seemed like Gabriel had recieved a very harsh message as he flinched, unwrapping his tunnel of wings from around them.

"I have to go." He said, he averted his eyes as he couldn't look at Henry's heartbroken face. Henry gripped tightly to his shirt, his little chest hiccupping with sobs now.

" _Please_ don't go!" Henry sobbed, his rows of baby wings drooping sadly on his back. Gabriel wanted to say _I love you_ so badly. But he could make up for all of this later, when he wouldn't be putting Henry in extreme danger by seeing him. He couldn't even bring himself to say goodbye, as the archangel vanished from underneath him...

Henry woke up with a small gasp, his breath catching in his throat. He opened his eyes and saw a vaulted ceiling and felt the couch underneath his back, it had just been a dream. He had that dream a lot, whenever he was upset, and he didn't particularly care for it. It was one of the few encounters he'd ever had with his angel father, but he didn't like to remember it. Gabriel was always running around, doing things Henry couldn't quite comprehend. He didn't like to dwell on it and feel bitter.

He had his dad, his uncles, he had James.

At this thought, he felt arms wrap around his chest. Aw, James was such a damn baby sometimes. He opened his eyes and saw James pulling away from the quick, reassuring hug.

"Mornin', couzie." Henry said, stretching his arms over his head and yawning. "I see you're headgear's almost all grown in." He said, peering in to see his cousin's true form, also so that he could change the subject. James wasn't so easily thrown off subject.

"You told me they don't happen anymore." James crossed his arms and frowned. "I thought you trusted me."

"They didn't..Jimmy, I haven't had one for a long time." Henry said irritably. "You know how it is with time travel."

James still didn't answer, keeping his arms crossed.

" _Fine_ , Jimmy. I'm sorry. I don't know why you're mad at me when I literally just woke up. I would have told you." Henry rolled his eyes but smiled reassuringly at James' pouty expression. He could be such a baby.

"Fine." James answered, gripping the edge of the couch and beginning to stand up.

Then he smiled and ran a hand through his pitch hair. "Are they really almost in?"

"Hm. Maybe a few more days. And they look absolutely ridiculous, by the way." Henry smirked up at James, which earned him a whap to the face with a pillow.

"Eh, somebody's just jealous." James laughed. "C'mon, Bambi. We gotta get out of here asap, and get after Mammon. She could be anywhere." Henry stretched and climbed from the couch, and once he'd straightened up James whumped him into another hug, his face came to Henry's chest-level as he let his ear press to his chest.

"Wow. You done?" Henry snickered and ruffled the kid's dark hair, not like it wasn't messy enough. He always had major bedhead. "I feel like the mother of an overly clingy kid on the first day of preschool."

"Shut up, bitch." James' voice came through somewhat muffled. "And stop trying to act so fuckin' tough all the time. I know you better than anyone else, and you're not fooling anyone. You're like my big brother, and if I see that you need a hug I'm giving you one, dammit." He said, and Henry found it hilarious that he sounded angry as he said this.

James pulled away and Henry reached out to ruffle his hair. "Mr. Bedhead, back at it again." Henry teased. "Y'know, the hair on the back of your head was getting so messy that last night I just cut it off." 

James looked at his blankly. "You wouldn't-" 

He reached back and felt all his hair in tact, bedhead and all, and broke out into a grin. "You bastard," 

"Wow, would you look at that! The ceiling says gullible!" Henry shoved him playfully on his way to the kitchen, and James quickly began to smooth down his awful bedhead, ready to head into the kitchen area. "I only checked because I wouldn't put it past you!" 

"Okay, Jimmy, let's go tell the 'rents what our plan is." Henry said, chuckling to himself as he patted James just once on the back. Sure, they'd get in spats almost every single day, but James could be a total sweetheart sometimes, and Henry didn't want to admit he loved it when James would show his more kind side.

Dean was already awake, and he was making coffee. He almost jumped when he saw the two amble in side-by-side and take their seats at the table, like he still hadn't had the whole situation sink in.

"Uh, mornin'." He said lamely, turning back to the coffee machine. Maybe because everything was so unexpected and it was late at night when they first arrived it hadn't seemed so weird, but now, in the morning with the two of them just here...it felt _awkward_. And especially because they knew everything about him and he knew next to nothing about them. "What's for breakfast?" James piped up, still making a futile attempt to tame his wild morning hair.

Dean noticed him smoothing down his head and spoke up again. "Is it..do you, um, need something-" James realized and let go, a piece of his hair was sticking straight up like Alfalfa.

"Oh, no. It's not that. I'm all good." James smiled brightly up at him and finished smoothing down his hair quickly. "Henry says I'm almost all done anyway." He beamed up at Dean, and Dean realized it must have meant a lot to James that he'd passed this milestone, especially since Cas had been treating it as such a big deal the other day, but he wasn't sure what to say to that.

"Um...congrats." Dean said nervously.

James just chuckled light-heartedly. "You're so weird, dad."

"You can help yourself to anything in the pantry.." Dean started, but was interrupted.

"No need, Uncle D." Henry chimed, swiping his hand across the table, which suddenly yielded four plates of steaming hot breakfast food, with sausages, hash browns, eggs, fruit, and toast on each plate.

"Show off," James said, but his words were muffled from the food he'd already shoved into his mouth. "Plus you're supposed to conserve your energy for the hunt today, genius."

"Well, it looks like the food tastes terrible in your opinion.." Henry chuckled as James shoveled down another forkful of food.

"Shuff up," James kept eating. He swallowed and spoke up. "How about we head out in twenty?"

"Sounds good." Henry replied, taking a small bite of his own plate. Dean found it funny how they could be at each other's throats and then just as civil as ever the next second. But then it sank in what they were talking about.

"Wait, Sam isn't even up yet, and we need to prep the car with supplies." Dean said, lifting an eyebrow. "You _are_ including us, right?"

The two cousins exchanged a guilty glance. "See, dad, uhm.." James started, averting his gaze and looking at the floor. "We can't risk you or dad getting hurt, Uncle D. I'm sorry, but I think it would be best if me and James took this one." Henry answered, for once his Sam side came through as he tried to be nice about it.

"She's probably even more powerful than Abbadon. And Dean.." Henry pressed his lips together and continued. "You're only human."

Dean bristled and spun around. "Henry, me and Sam have been just fine doing this for god knows how many years. So why don't you find this Mammu bitch and we can all help end this."

Henry looked down at James, wanting him to answer this time. "Dad...we..we just can't. This is going to be dangerous to say the least."

Dean looked even more angry as he said this. "All the more reason for us to come, then."

There was clearly no reasoning with the overly protective father, who was almost fuming standing there. "James Samuel Winchester, you better not do something stupid."

 _Jimmy?_ Henry spoke directly into James' head, and he swept his eyes over to meet his cousin's dark blue orbs discreetly.

 _Now what? If dad gets hurt here..._ Jimmy pressed his lips together. He didn't like time travel much, he always worried that something bad would happen to completely screw with everything. Ugh, he needed some tea and a good book to curl up with.

 _I know. I don't want to mess something up either._ Henry paused for a second. _Dean is so set on coming, and...I don't want to lose you if we lose him._

 _Aww, Henry, that's so sweet, when's our wedding?_  James poked fun of him, but the truth was he was touched when his tough-shelled cousin occasionally was kind like that.

 _Shut up, Prongs._ Henry grinned at him. _I have an idea._

Dean was immediately suspicious of all the sudden silence. "That's it, I'm waking up Sam. If you two keep misbehaving I swear, I'll spank you..." He quickly strode from the room, leaving his mug of steaming coffee behind. Henry quickly seized the opportunity to lean over and hurriedly whisper into James' ear.

"I did a quick search of the area, and I found her. Bitch must have a thing for bars, cuz she's at one already. It's about an hour drive away."

James lifted his eyebrow. He knew what Henry was trying to say.

"So angel-proof the area for dad, so they'll have to drive?" James asked. He knew he wanted to shake the parents trailing them, but to not even have the option of backup...

"We were so close yesterday, Jimmy. C'mon, we _got_ this." Henry prompted, grinning deviously and playfully swinging his silver blade around, he'd just conjured it. "What do you say?" He extended his hand for James to grip onto so they could share the somewhat energy-sapping flight.

James thought for a moment. "We going with plan Subterranean Sigil?" He brought a finger up to his lips in thought.

Henry winked and him and grabbed his hand. "Plan SS, baby."

James looked to his side for a second, contemplating. Finally, he shook his head slightly and closed his eyes, letting out a tight sigh. "Yeah. You know what, fuck it. We got this." 

Henry smiled brightly. "That's the spirit, couzie."

The two vanished with a light flutter and then everything was still.

It was just a second too late when Cas popped into the room, he was smiling brightly with his arms full of supplies. He had a pink, floppy hot water bag in one arm and an icepack in the other, as well as countless bottles of painkillers.

"James? I got a few things.." He knew something wasn't right as he looked around the quiet room. The boys from the future weren't there, he could feel there were somewhere else. "Henry? James?" He called out uncertainly, but his own voice only echoed back at him. He then spotted the small, quickly closing scar in the air, an indication that they'd flown somewhere else.

"Dean!"

* * *

 

The two stood outside of the bar and quickly pushed inside. They spotted her right away; the woman they'd chased earlier. She had long, wavy blonde hair and she was wearing an all black outfit, chatting up some guy by the bar and batting her lashes.

"I call left." James said through his teeth to Henry, who nodded.

"I'll take right." He hissed back, and the two straightened up. They sat down at a table and sat face to face, putting their elbows on the table and gripping their hands together like a double arm wrestle. "Try and keep up this time, lil' bro." Henry smirked and closed his eyes, concentrating.

James puffed out a bit of air and slightly smiled, closing his eyes too and deeply focusing on the job. If one could concentrate enough, they could probably pick up on the faint scraping noise that filled the room as the two carved a devil's trap telepathically underneath the floor, James took the left half and Henry the right, right around two inches beneath the hardwood into the cement.

"Okay, Jimmy, it's your turn." Henry said, his eyebrow lifting just a little. "Wanna go first?"

 "Come on, HJ! You know I couldn't pull that off. I'm too _small_ , remember?" James jeered and crossed his arms over his chest.

Henry rolled his eyes. "Rock, Paper, Scissors, shoot!"

Henry slapped his forehead and leaned back in his chair dramatically. "Mother fff..."

"Quit being a drama king and psuedo-rob the damn bar already." James chuckled into his hand at his cousin's killer glare. Henry stuck his tongue out playfully before standing up quickly, and pulling out his gun and firing two shots into the air.

"ALRIGHT, FUCKERS. This is a robbery! So if you don't want to _die_ in the next few seconds, I suggest you get the Hell. Out." Henry stood there with his gun pointed skyward. The bar cleared out pretty damn quickly after that.

James calmly stood up and brushed his shoulders off of the drywall that had sifted down after the first few gunshots to the ceiling. "Eh, coulda done better."

Henry reloaded his gun, and began to sing. James rolled his eyes. "Not this again-"

"All I want to do is-" Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. "And-" Chi-chic. He reloaded. "And take ya money." He lifted his eyebrows and put his hands out as if he were eagerly awaiting James's response. 

"Ah...zero out of ten. It's a no from me. You're not going to Hollywood." James laughed, and the two ambled to the seriously pissed off demon in the invisible devil's trap. She drummed her red nail polished fingers on the bar top, seriously pissed that two kids that were absolute _idiots_ could ensnare her like this.

"You two again." She snarled, her bright blue eyes narrowing as he gritted her teeth together.

"Us two again." Henry replied, smirking and putting his gun away. "And this time? We're gonna finish the job." He lowered his voice dangerously, and James felt goosebumps prickle to his skin. His cousin could be pretty intimidating sometimes.

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure." The blonde hissed, a dangerous smile now crawling to her lips. "How goes it, Azzie?"

" _Asmodeus_ -" James' face fell in realization. There was a loud crack as the sister who had mysteriously appeared behind them stamped her foot and the floor pulled apart into a two or three foot chasm, destroying the sigil under the floor that had been holding her sister in place.

"You two haven't learned yet? Us sisters have a few tricks up our sleeves. I travel through time, Azzie space..." The other sister suddenly popped next to Mammon, they had matching devilish grins on their faces. Asmodeus had pitch black hair in a short, sharply cut bob, pale white skin like her sister and deep green eyes.

"Aww, Em, but they're only babies." Asmodeus's voice was low and rough, and she had blood red lips just like both of her triplet sisters. "But you know what they say. Veal is better than beef..."

James whipped out his blade and almost growled, getting into a fighting stance. "You'll never find Abbadon. We'll gank your damn asses _twice_ over before I let that happen." His deep blue eyes were narrowed dangerously, and Henry felt his own blade drop into his palm, a result of his pounding heart.

"You'd be surprised what a little torture can do, sweetheart." Mammon said in her sickeningly sweet high pitched voice. She exchanged a glance with the black-haired woman and sneered.

"Now. The fun part." Mammon hissed. "You two have been a thorn in my side for too damn long."

The woman had been right in front of him just a second ago, as Henry narrowed his eyes and felt the blade underneath his sleeve, just about ready to try and lunge forward and run the woman through. Asmodeus smiled up at him with what was the cross between a sultry smile and a sneer, her red lipsticked lips curling up and her lucid green eyes narrowing dangerously.

Henry blinked in surprise when the black-haired woman suddenly just _disappeared_. Right in front of him. He didn't see the wrinkles and swirling air that would have indicated that she'd time traveled, only the telltale scar that meant a shift in space, not time. So where was she?

Henry got the answer soon enough. He heard a wet cough next to him and whipped his head to look.

"H-Henr-" James sputtered, fear shining from his eyes. His cousin was falling, gripping tightly to his shirt. Henry felt his heart skip a beat; the demon had plunged a blade deep into James's side, a sickeningly evil sneer on her lips.

"Oh my God.. _James_!" Henry screamed out, catching the falling man and holding him in his arms as James' face began to get increasingly paler.

"Hey, buddy, look at me, stay with me.." Henry felt his chest squeezing painfully with fear, he brought a hand up and touched James' face, his own hand was tainted with James's quickly flowing blood, and it was shaking. He left little viscous red fingerprints of blood on James' face, his own blood.

Henry felt more anger than he'd ever felt in his entire life, he let it fill him up until he felt like he would burst with it.

"Don't pursue me or my sisters again. You have no idea what you're getting into, _little boy_." The black haired woman sneered, reaching out and latching on to Mammon's arm. Henry held James close and protectively to his chest, James had closed his eyes and the features on his pale face were going lax.

"James...James, listen to me, stay with me.." Henry had his bloody hand cupped to his cheek, it was shaking violently, and James didn't respond.

"You can't kill _us_. We'll kill you first." Mammon snickered, playing with a strand of her long blonde hair. Suddenly, everyone who had previously ran from the bar rushed back in, ebony eyes making them look like some type of sick insect. Henry let the anger fill him up, feeling it just at the threshold of bursting out of his body.

"Never tell me what I can't do." Henry growled, lifting his narrowed eyes from his dying cousin's face to meet the two demon's blue and green eyes. Within a split second, Henry made his restraint disappear and his power kicked out in a sharp circle.

This had only happened once before in the past, and it had scared him shitless. He'd needed Cas to help to explain to him what had happened; that all angels had their own sort of aura that surrounded their body, and anything that fell within its proximity could be under their control. Cas demonstrated it to him; it looked like some sort of three-dimensional shadow that encompassed their bodies, but it wasn't geometric or spherical in any way. It moved like a plasma, like shadows of flame licking around their vessel. Their shadow of influence. And he knew that because he was the son of an archangel, his would be large and powerful.

A powerful burst kicked out and reached in to every single demon in the room, shoving through their flesh and bone and ruthlessly ripping their poisonous substance out of the humans, matter black as ink splattered out from every single body, a wind erupting and whipping through the room, all the framed pictures and posters tore apart.

But the two sisters had already vanished.

Henry had a fierce fire in his eyes, and his wings were out in full, the gradient of glossy gold-to-brown outstretched and encompassing himself and the limp boy. He closed his eyes and used every ounce of strength he had left to locate the Impala and fly both him and his cousin into it.

A burst of wind combed through the car as the two roughly fell into the backseat, Henry still had his six pairs of wings tightly and protectively wrapped around James.

"What the-"

"Oh my God!" Dean swerved to the side, and killed the engine. Henry was passed out and breathing raggedly, his golden feathers were rumpled and puffed up and one of his wings was tweaked.

Dean saw just a peek of James' pale face from a gap in one of the wings, and his heart caught in his throat. His son's face was white as a sheet, and blood was staining his cheek.

"James...oh my god, Jamie..." Dean reached back over the seat to lift the wall of golden-brown feathers to try and get a better look, but as soon as his hand made contact the wing rustled loudly and tightened around the small human's body. Henry scowled in his sleep and part of Henry's influence shot out and Dean was suddenly seized by an invisible force, as Henry was still unconsciously in extreme protection mode. Dean was making small choking sounds as his own hands flew to his throat.

"Henry, hey! It's okay, it's me!" Sam quickly insisted, reaching back and touching the young man's shoulder, which seemed to break the spell as Dean wheezed in a deep breath. He lifted the floppy wing and the blood rushed from his face as he saw a dark red blooming bloodstain that was originating from James but wicking fast onto Henry's clothes as well.

"Jesus Christ..." Dean's breath caught in his throat as he scrambled into the back and lifted Henry's now completely relaxed wing as he saw James' deep stab wound.

"Sam. Drive. Now." Dean barked, shouldering off the massive wing and peering underneath. "Dammit, James, what the _hell_ where you thinking?!" 


	4. Chapter 4

"Henry, hey, listen! You have to let him go."

Dean insisted, shaking his shoulder and trying to get him to loosen his deathly tight wing-grip around James. "No..no..I won't let.." Henry was mumbling feverishly, the wings tightening even closer.

"Sam, go grab Cas. Hurry." Dean hissed, trying with no avail to pry the wings apart. "C'mon, Henry. Come _on_." Dean made a particularly harsh shove, and Henry suddenly sent out some kind of sonic burst, all the windows in the car shattered and pebbles of glass cascaded from all sides. At least it seemed to drain Henry of the very last of his energy source, as the wings finally drooped and Dean quickly unwrapped James from them.

The man was white as a sheet, he moaned and curled into his wound. "Ah, ah, oh my god..." Dean wasn't feeling as sharp as he usually did in situations like this, he spent a split second too long staring in fear at the little man curled up among the golden wings. Dean let himself be gently pushed aside as Cas kneeled down and pulled the man out of Henry's grasp, quickly shooting out blindingly white healing energy into his body as Dean saw the stab wound smooth over, Cas cradled the half-angel close and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Is he okay? Jesus..Cas, is he okay?" Dean knelt down next to the Impala and felt his forehead, his skin was cold and clammy. "I knew he was going to get hurt. I knew he was going to do something stupid. God  _dammmit_!"

"He needs rest." Cas said calmly, easily keeping him in his arms and heading back into the bunker. "Henry does as well." Sam gently lay his hand on Henry's cheek, an extremely concerned expression on his face as he went to pick up Henry.

Dean trailed behind Cas, feeling like he was floating as he felt numb from shock. He followed Cas all the way into his own bedroom, where the angel sat down with his back against the headboard, keeping James protectively curled on his chest. Dean realized now that they were alone; just him, Cas, and their  _son_.

"He lost a lot of blood. But he should be fine with a little rest." Cas looked up at Dean, his eyes clouded with worry. Dean sucked in a little breath and started the conversation he'd been dreading since James had arrived. "Cas..."

Cas pulled James closer, and the man moaned slightly and his head drooped to Cas's shoulder. "I know. I know you find this situation very odd. I'm sorry." Dean slipped on to the side of the bed and swept James' hair from his cold face, he still felt jittery from the fear. "It's not about having a kid, not really. It's about..."

"The fact he is a nephilim? Understandably, I've never explained infant angel functions to you before, and the fact he is going through his first additions must have come as a shock, but-"

"No, Cas." Dean interrupted, feeling his face growing tighter. "It's about...why..you chose me to pair with."

Cas looked confused as his eyes narrowed, he held James' head in place on his shoulder. "....Why wouldn't I choose you, Dean?" Cas asked quietly, sweetly.

He looked down at James and a small smile came to his lips as he played softly with a strand of dark hair. James nuzzled closer, breathing slowly. "Look at him. He's everything I could have asked for. I couldn't wish for a better firstborn."

Dean felt his breath catch in his throat. " _Firstborn_ , Cas? He's really... _James is really_..." He had to take a second to run a hand through his hair in frustration. " _Dammit_ , Cas, are you joking?" Dean scrubbed his face agrily, and Cas tipped his head to the side slightly. "Why would I..."

"You've never had a kid before? Ever?" Dean almost said it in an acusitory way. He found himself simmering, almost coming to a boil. He didn't know what he was so angry, but his tightly gripped fists were already shaking.

Cas looked hurt as he tucked James' head to the space next to his neck. "No, I...James is my first fledgling."

Dean stood roughly off the bed, gripping his hair tightly in his hands. " _What the hell is the matter with you_?" He yelled furiously, so loudly that James' eyes fell open just a little. "You chose your first kid to be a  _Winchester_? What the fuck were you thinking?!"

"I don't know. I haven't lived that yet, I don't know the reasons for my actions. But I love him, Dean." Cas shot back, narrowing his eyes. "I love that he's a Winchester."

"No, Cas! Shut up!" Dean turned away. "It's because of me that he got hurt! If I wasn't his dad..if it was only you.." He felt tears slip down his cheeks, he couldn't get a grip on his emotions right now. "This is my fault. He's hurting because of me."

"His pain in not your fault." Castiel said calmly, smoothing down James' hair and rubbing his temples tenderly. When he smiled down at their son, that's what really set Dean off.

" _Why would you do this to him? To yourself_?" The words just shot up from his throat, he wasn't actually sure where they even came from. He felt scared at the idea that the angel and him shared a kid. Of course he had doubts sometimes about his real feelings for Cas, and James was pretty fucking perfect. And these two things scared him shitless.

"Stop pretending! _Stop playing house!_ James' life is going to be fucked up because you chose me! You've cursed your first born child, Cas, so con-fucking-grats!" Dean fumed, storming from the room and out to the living room, he buried his face in his hands and tried not to think about anything for just a minute. Cas didn't come out, and Dean was grateful for that at least. Sam did, and he came and sat next to Dean.

"This has been a crazy couple of days, hasn't it?" Sam said, sighing. "Is James okay?"

Dean nodded, keeping his eyes to the ground. "Cas is taking care of it. How about Gabe Jr. over there?"

Sam smiled just a little at the nickname. "He's resting. I hate to say it, but I think I have to call Gabriel down sooner or later. Cas just..might not have all the answers I need." Dean nodded again, hiding his face in his hands. 

 _Cas told me James is his firstborn_. He wanted to say, but he didn't even want to say it aloud. He felt sick thinking about how James had gotten hurt on the job, how he was dragging Cas down with him once again. He wanted Cas to not be burdened by him for much longer, but that wasn't an option anymore. He just didn't want to see Cas hurt anymore, and if that meant he'd have to sacrifice his own happiness, so friggin' be it.

Dean opened up the liquor cabinet and downed a shot of whiskey just to calm his nerves, Dean dragged the back of his shaking hand across his mouth and sighed. He felt like he was years older as he finally stood up and decided to get to bed for the night, hopefully things would feel a little bit better by morning. 

Dean groaned when Cas was suddenly right there in his path, a soft smile on his face. Dean's heart wrenched in his chest.

"James is going to be all right." Cas reassured him with a soft smile. "He's healing very well." 

"Yeah. Great." Dean huffed, almost as if he were annoyed. Cas drew his eyebrows together. He didn't get it.  

"G-Goodnight, Dean." Cas sputtered slightly. 

Dean only gave him so much as half a glance before turning coldly away to drag himself to bed. 

* * *

That night had not been easy for Dean. He barely spoke a word after his short conversation with Sam, he set up James' bed again and had eaten dinner wordlessly by himself. Even his unconscious was out to get him as he dropped into a rocky sleep.

Blood was everywhere, and there was so much of it. "Dad?" James' voice echoed through his mind. "Dad?! Help me!" His voice was raw with fear, tearing through the air. But by the time he got to him, he was nothing more than a bloody mass, a skinless human being, a red pulp.

" _James_..oh, Jesus...Jamie.." Dean knelt down, and the skinless corpse opened his dark blue, hope-diamond eyes, the whites of his eyes popping in contrast with the blood on his entire face. "This is your fault. This is your fault, Dean." As he spoke, Dean could then see his teeth through his cheeks, more flesh was falling away, he was dying, rotting right before him..

Dean flew up in bed with a deep gasp, as a hand flew to his chest. He tried to steady his breathing, and he blinked a few times before rubbing his eyes. He slipped quickly from his bed, padding out quietly through the hallways in the dark to find his son. He hated that he'd gotten in a fight with Cas, but there wasn't really any other way to let out all the pent-up emotions he was bottling up.

James was fast asleep on the couch, lying on his side with his arm outstretched and his head resting on it. Dean felt another rush of relief as he saw him breathe deeply in and out, he was all there and not a horrific bloody mess. Dean pulled up the ottoman and sat right in front of him, taking in the kid's relaxed and sleeping features for a second. He reached out tentatively, and smoothed his thumb over the short, soft hairs just next to James's ear, then moved up and pushed his hair from his forehead and combed his fingers through the thick brown hair at the crown of his head. James smiled in his sleep at the gesture, snuggling down into his pillow and let out a small snore. Dean found himself smiling and he ran his thumb over the soft hairs of his somewhat-sideburns again. He really was a good kid, wasn't he?

"He's dreaming about you. It's not a nightmare either, I'm guessing that's why you're awake." Cas said, padding quietly into the room.

Dean took his hand away right away and sighed. "Look, Cas, I'm sorry I got angry with you." He said in on exhale, choosing not to look at Cas but at James instead.

The angel didn't respond for a moment, but only came up to stand next to Dean and stared at him with a confused expression.

"I don't understand your anger when I told you he was my first child." Cas narrowed his eyes and tipped his head slightly to the side. "Did you think..."

"I  _was thinking_ I don't deserve that, okay? That's what." Dean voiced his true feelings finally, his voice angry at first but then softening. "I wanted you to have pretty little pure angel babies that romp around in that heaven of yours and you wouldn't have to be tied to a person like _me_. James is going to get hurt because I'm his father, don't you see that?  And you're going to have to take care of him when he gets hurt, and that's all on me. Don't you understand?" Dean looked at his shoes and swallowed the lump forming in his throat. "You should have chosen someone else." He breathed, shaking his head that was hung in shame.

Cas was suddenly crouched down, he was sneering as he roughly grabbed Dean's shirt, forcing him to look up from the floor. "This is what you do, Dean! Push people away, every time!" He hissed at him, giving him a small shake. "You don't think you deserve to be loved? You don't think you deserve to have family, or be the father of my firstborn?"

Dean's eyes widened. Cas let go of his shirt and stood up angrily. "I had the opportunity to give you a child who would be able to defend himself, to be able to save himself in case you _couldn't_. Had he been human, Dean, that would have killed him.  _I_  wanted to give that gift to you, after everything you've done for me." He explained, and clenched his hands into angry fists.

"James is better than anything I ever expected. I'm...I never even thought I  _could_ have... I'm honored to call him my son." Cas's eyes were narrowed as he stood pin-straight. "You need to realize you're not worthless. You have the right to be loved, to have a people who love you. You've earned that, Dean." A tear was sparkling in his eyes, unshed. _I love you. Can't you see that, you beautiful broken-souled bastard?_

Dean looked into James' face and locked his jaw, narrowing his yes.

"No." He said gruffly, shutting his eyes in pain for a second. "I've earned nothing."

Cas stood in shock; after everything he'd just told him, after literally trying to shake the sense into him...he still didn't understand. Dean refused to look at Cas again as he kept his eyes closed and his head unmoving.

"Goodnight, Cas." Dean said it like an order, like it really meant "Go away." Cas listened, as he left into another room. But he would never leave Dean, not when he was hurting and broken like this. And Cas knew that he and James might just be able to put him back together again.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Extra information about the following chapters: Since Gabriel is technically Loki, it had me thinking about traditional mythology and what that would entail. Henry definitely would not be Gabriel/Loki's first child. So here we see a few of his older half-siblings, including Loki's son the wolf (Fenris/Fenrisulfr) and eight-legged horse (Sleipnir). Viking mythology is too cool. I will most likely be mentioning more about it in this story, but I'll try to make sure it's not too obscure. Thanks for reading! ;)

**P.O.V. Henry John Winchester**

* * *

I have just one question for you. Have you ever killed around thirty demons all at once by using some ability that your douchebag father gave you that you don't  _really_ know how to use before?

Yeah. Me neither.

Let me give you a little word of advice. Fucking  _Don't_. Like,  _ever_.

To say I felt like shit would be the understatement of the century. I literally was like the shit's shit. Like a fly ate shit and then shit it out again. That would be me right now. Except maybe even worse. Like maybe that last shit from that poor motherfucker at the tail end of that creepy ass human centipede thing, like shit times three. Yeah, that sounds about right.

So here I am, sitting flat on my stomach, basically all I can even do right now is breathe and moan unintelligable words. I feel like throwing up and also curling in a ball and maybe just, you know, not existing for a while. I feel the crap in my  _bones_ , man. The aching is deep as fuck. I can't really concentrate on much else besides the fact that my brain is screaming a million different pain impulses at once. My tweaked wing hurts like a mother, my bones hurt, my whole shadow of influence is hotter than hell as it's trying to deflate after stretching so far. My entire body just feels bitchtastic.

I finally get my first thought that's not about pain.  _James_. My mind reminds me, and I jerk and try to roll over, I can feel my cousin's grace is nearby. I  _have_  to see him, I have to make sure he's okay. "James..." I groaned, but it didn't really sound much like a word of the English language as it did a zombie growl. 

"Hey, shh, Henry? It's okay." That voice matches my dad. Well, not my douchebag angel dad, my real dad. I feel a reassuring yet strong hand press to my shoulder and I relax just a little. He wouldn't have told me things were okay if something  _had_  happened to James.

"Dad...is James.." I manage to say, but I sound like a bullfrog with strep throat. Ugh. I won't be picking up many ladies or gents with  _that_  voice.

"It's okay. He's perfectly fine. Just relax." Sam's voice calms me down, and I let my body sink into the mattress underneath me. That one bum wing that came out twisted when I was little was bothering me again. I needed to make sure they were in this dimension still as I gently folded them: yup, they were here. I felt kind of bad- Sam was probably a little overwhelmed right now. I sure as hell was when I first got them; there's just so many of them.

"What's wrong? Does something hurt?" Sam asked right away, concern pouring from his words. "Henry, let me help you."

"My wing..." I groaned, but I couldn't flap it to indicate which one of the six it was. "Middle Left." I let out a puff of air I didn't know I was holding in as he gently pulled on it, the muscles stretched and the pain lifted as he helped me to guide it back in to fold.

"Cas told us what you did back there." Sam said quietly, coming and sitting at the foot of the bed by my side. I felt his large, calloused hand smooth down my back and rub in small circles by my shoulder blades. "I'm...I'm proud of you. What you did for James." I smiled a little smile into the blankets so that he wouldn't see. I finally lifted my wings up, and with just a little bit of effort tucked them away so they'd be invisible again.

"I have to see James." I said after that, feeling a little more strength when I thought about being able to see that my cousin was safe after what that horrible demon did to him.

"He's fine. Better than you are, you're the one who needs rest."

I frowned, and this time I made sure he could see it. "Send him in then, dammit." I almost ordered, but I was just so anxious. This wasn't the first time I've saved his ass. Or that he's saved mine. I waited for a little while in my triple-shitty state, when I finally heard footsteps come into the room.

I felt arms wordlessly wrap around me, and I locked my teeth together and squeezed that smallish, muscular little body that I called my cousin. "Oh, you stupid motherfucker." I breathed out, squeezing my arms even tighter as James let out a little wheeze from his crushing ribcage. "James, you piece of shit." I didn't want to let go even when he bubbled up a laugh and began pushing against me. "You're crushing me, HJ."

"I fucking hate you, you know that?" Of course I meant the opposite. Not like I was going to say the L-word out loud, anyway.

"I know." James replied, the corners of his eyes crinkling up from a smile as I finally let go of the bone-crushing hug. He then grew to look concened, an expression that was very Cas-like. "Are you okay? I mean...does it hurt?" He was thinking about last time, I could tell. I was too.

"I basically feel like triple-shit. Like you know that one poor soul at the end of the human centip-" I interupted myself with a loud laugh as I saw my cousin's expression. James screwed up his face and shook his head quickly back and forth. "Ew. Stop, TMI."

He looked concerned again and touched my back lightly. "It got twisted again, huh?" He asked quietly. "You need to stop carrying so much weight. We're too young, Henry." It was almost uncomfortable how well we knew each other. I shrugged and rolled my shoulders, the wing was only aching now, not so much pinching with twisted muscles. "I'm fine." I mumbled, sitting up in bed. James frowned and helped steady me by the shoulders as black began to fuzz my vision and I swayed a little.

"You're better than last time, right?" He asked quietly, genuine concern shining from his deep blue eyes. I hesitated but nodded. "I should be fine in a few days, short stop." He didn't looked so convinced.  _Smart bastard_.

I can never forget that sound of that bullet zipping by my ear, rustling my hair with a small push of wind. That tinny little  _zppppp_  can still sometimes work its way into my dreams, the ghost of the sound jerking me awake and leaving me to lie and stare at the ceiling for a few minutes.

Not everyone in heaven settled well with Gramp's plan, obviously. Some angels had just gone full-on dick and would never be able to go back, no matter what Grandpappy's orders were. These angels never paired with humans, they had such an overwhelming disgust and deep-seated hatred of them. They were locked away in Purgatory, Daddy's little time-out corner, in order to try and change their minds. Some felt they deserved the penance. Others found a way to break out. And what was their first target? Me and my cousin and the other children like us, the "abominations."

"Jimmy! Jimmy, where are you?" I was around ten at the time, James was seven. People were fighting all around, there was smoke, there were clashes and booms that hurt my heart when angels died and yells and screams for mercy. I finally found him, he was curled up and sobbing, halfway ensnared in a thornbush, punctures and little leaks of blood already scratching his arms. The fear had caused him to expose his wings, the little baby black wings were tangled in the thorns as well.

"Henry..." He sobbed, tears streaming from his eyes. "They're going to kill us. I don't want to die." He rocked back and forth, hiccuping and hugging his knees to his chest. "Henry, I'm scared. I'm scared." I folded him into my arms, and pulled out my wings. I remember having absolutely no idea what to do.

It was so close. Milimeters, I'd guess. The wounded angel came out of nowhere, not even hesitating for one second as she plunged the blade just milimeters away from killing James, before shining with light and dying herself as another angel jabbed a blade into her back and ripped it out, shatters of grace flitting and dying in the air like embers. I was already filling up with fear and anger as I met the eyes of the man who saved my cousin and me.

It was Gabriel. He looked pretty worse for wear, he had a slash across his face and numerous all over his body as he looked at me with hazel-green eyes, he was donning an overwhelmed expression. I said those same words that just fell from my lips whenever I saw him. "...Dad?" I asked, keeping a tight hold on James, who was sniffling and looking up to his Uncle as well. "Henry, I-" His voice was the same as I'd remembered it, and he didn't look too different either. My heart ached just seeing him again after I'd begged for him to stay and he just left me and my dad  _again_.

He was interrupted as he quickly ran through another enemy angel. "Fly away from here. You're not safe." He told me, but I didn't know how. I didn't want to never see him again if I did. I saw another angel sneak up behind him, and I tried to warn him, but it was too late. The bladge plunged into the back of his bicep, and he buckled over, grace streaming out. But he still moved to sheild us.

The anger began to fill me up, spilling out from my body, taking over my vision. I squeezed my eyes shut and the circle of influence kicked out, bursting like an exploding star and tearing into enemy angel's vessels, ripping their graces significantly, harming them enough but I wasn't strong enough to kill them. Yet, anyway. I could tell I would be able to one day, when I'm older.

I was horrible at flying at that age. I sucked more than a desperate prostitute. I skipped like a stone, I felt my heart squeeze as I heard one of James' bones snap loudly at the first bounce and he screamed out, and I let him go as I knew we were home but I couldn't stop myself from flying. I kept on skipping over land, skin scraping off my elbows and knees each time I impacted, as I finally slid to a stop and lay flat on my back.

It was cold as fuck, snowing a little too. I was on top of snow, it was like needles to my exposed skin. The sky was a starchy bright grey, and white flakes were skittering down all around me. My scrapes stung, in that awkward painful phase before the cold let them be numb, I was so void of energy that I didn't even have it in me to twitch a finger. My eyes were halfway open. I couldn't even muster the strength to tense up as I heard loud snaps in the frosty forest to my right.

I knew I was already dead when I heard a deep rumbling growl, and an animalistic snarl. The snow crunched as large footfalls made their way toward me, hot breaths snuffling into the air. It wasn't long before a humid exhale combed through my hair, and the best I could do was shut my eyes and play dead. I felt a wet nose nuzzle into my exposed palm, and then a warm lick on my cheek. I halfway opened my eyes again, and I met the stark ice white-blue eyes on the face of a wickedly dark wolf. His head was  _huge_  too; probably the size of my entire torso. I managed to let out a little whimper as I snapped my eyes closed again. I was so confused as I was suddenly lifted into very strong, very human arms.

"So you're the new little addition to the family." His voice was rough and deep, but I kind of liked it instead of feeling intimidated by it. I leaned with all my weight onto the stony-muscled chest underneath me. "Poor kid. You look like shit, baby bro." His laugh bobbed my body slightly as he began to crunch through the snow, carrying me somewhere else. Hopefully it would be warm there. "Pops told me to come after you. He's a little busy nowadays, ain't he? I suprised he had the time to pop out another kid. He's fighting the Big Bads now, huh? At least he's keeping you under the radar. Leviathans can be a pain in my ass."

"Who..." I managed to whisper. I felt the mysterious man brush the hair away that had fallen into my eyes. "I'm Fenrisulfr, just call me Fenris. And I'm your older brother, you idiot." I don't remember much else as I blacked out right after he said that to me. I'll never know if I imagined the exaggerated "Oh,  _great_." That came after that. I'd never told anyone, but Fenris became sort of my role model after that. I wanted to act like I imagined he'd act.

When I woke up, I was lying against something that was warm and soft and  _moving_. It was breathing. I peeked open my eye and saw that I was resting against a grey speckled horse, and Fenris was putting something on my scrapes that riddled my body. I blinked, and didn't know if I had imagined it. This wasn't a regular horse...

"You have a lot of legs." I said groggily, hissing just a little as Fenris put something on my scraped knee. Fenris chuckled and answered. "He says you have a lot of wings." I nodded just a little and lay back on the soft grey belly. "Touché." I replied, and the horse snorted and Fenris erupted into laughter. "Think whatever you want, Sleip. I think he's cute." It was then that I suddenly remembered. "James! I hurt him, his bones broke-"

Fenris quickly calmed me down, shushing as he put a hand on my shoulder. "Sh, Henry, It's okay. We'll get you home soon, okay?" I nodded as a tear rushed down my face. The whole thing had scared me shitless, and I could feel myself trembling.

"Chin up, baby bro." Fenris smoothed away the tear as I closed my eyes again. "It'll all be okay."

When I finally did make it home, things weren't so great. James was worried sick as I was holed up in bed for weeks after the incident. I barely ate, and slept for the majority of the day. I lost close to ten pounds, and James thought I was dying. But every single day, when I woke up in the morning, there was a new lollilop on my bedside table. It went through every flavor of blow pop, dum-dum, and tootsie pop, and when it had gone through the whole spectrum, salt water taffies and German chocolates and caramels arrived, sitting there without so much as a note. And the last day I spent in bed I found a huge rainbow swirl lolly that took me and James four days to eat. I didn't know Sam knew I had a sweetooth. It was sweet of him to do that for me.

"Now that we're both up Dean's gonna give us an earful." James sighed and ran his hand through his dark hair. "I didn't think it was a bad plan at the time. Hell, sub-sigil worked like a charm."

"Yeah. Great planning on that one, by the way." I added, hoping I didn't sound too soppy. James could be a goddamn genius sometimes. He smiled just a little at the compliment. "If only Asmodeus hadn't shown up it would have gone perfectly to plan."

I pressed my lips together. "Well, try telling Uncle D that." James rolled his eyes and let out a huff. "Yeah, this is going to end great."

We exchanged glances as we were called out to dinner that night. Sam and Dean had already eaten, and Dean nodded for us to sit down across the table from him, plates of spagetti just daring us to take a bite. We both didn't even pick up a fork.

Dean knitted his fingers together and took a deep breath. " _Okay_." He said on exhale, blinking deeply and ovbiously trying to keep his anger in check. "Let me start out by saying I would appreciate it if you two took Baby to the shop to get all the windows replaced." He started out calmly enough, and me and James wordlessly nodded in agreement.

"Second I want to know who stabbed James." He was obviously trying very hard not to burst out with 'what the hell were you thinking!'s and 'I told you not to's. I huffed out a breath and slung my arm over my cousin. Hopefully Dean wouldn't be too harsh with him, I  _had_  been the one to convince him to go with me.

"Her name is Asmodeus. She is a demon with the ability to travel through space, while Mammon has time. I'm sure Abbadon has something too." I paused. "She came out of nowhere. There was nothing we could do." I squeezed James' shoulder lightly.

"And I'm guessing you had the Mammu thing under control?" Dean seethed sarcastically.

He was way too angry for me to attempt to correct the name. "Yeah, actually." I shot back. He was treating us like babies, but me and James were damn good Hunters. It just so happened he was seeing one of our flukes. "You ever heard of carving a devil's trap telekinetically underneath the demon? Cuz that's what me and couzie did, and the bitch never saw it coming. But then that fucking sister had to show up and everything went downhill."

"You know why? Because you two tried to do that all by yourselves, dammit! If me and Sam had been there-"

" _If you and Sam had been there_ you'd be dead."

I interrupted, narrowing my eyes at him as I felt my cousin getting guiltier by the second. "If James were human, he'd have died. There were almost thirty demons that I tore apart from the inside, and there must have been more I didn't get. I could only carry one other person, period. I can barely carry myself after using that much energy."

Dean looked pissed but like he couldn't help but agree. "What do you mean tore them apart? The demons?" He asked gruffly and crossed his arms, nodding at me to continue. 

"I exorcized them." I replied. "I use telekinesis to rip the demon souls from out of the human bodies, the souls that usually burn up when you stab them." 

If I wasn't mistaken, Dean almost looked _impressed_. Then he looked to James once again. " 'Still doesn't mean you could handle it on your own." He raised his eyebrows at him, as if he were asking 'well'?

"Don't take this out on James, Uncle D. I was the one who pressured him into going with me and keeping you and dad safe." I spoke up instead, and raised my chin at him as if I was daring him to try and counter me. 

Dean narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. "We don't need saving."

I gritted my teeth. My Uncle could be such a thick skull sometimes. "Sure. Whatever. All I'm saying is that we had it under control, and we  _will_  be going after these two again."

"Not without us, you won't." Dean quickly added, and ended the discussion by roughly standing up in his chair. "Don't- do stupid things. That's all I'm asking."

James nodded guiltily and took his first bite of food. Once Dean left, followed by Sam, I began to eat too. I swallowed my first bite and sighed. "Dude, I need a fuckin' drink." I said. Since we took up this Mammon case, I hadn't been to a bar for leisure in what felt like years.

"No kidding." James agreed, taking another large bite of his spaghetti. "Well, at least that didn't go as bad as I thought." He said optimistically after he swallowed.

"Meh. I still need a drink though." I loved going to bars with James and watching him trip over himself to try and hookup with the ladies. But I won't deny he made an awesome wingman. I waved my hand over the table, envisioning exactly what I wanted and expending just a little bit of energy to make it appear. James picked up his fake ID, stating that he was twenty-two, and examined it closely.

"You know, I'll kind of miss you making these for me once I turn twenty-one. They make me feel like a badass." He joked, slipping the ID into his wallet. "You know, like a total rule-breaker."

Trust me, a fake ID wasn't the worst of our crimes. Not even close. "I'll still make you some after your birthday if you want to feel that bad-boy rush." I joked, he was such a weirdo. Then, just to fuck with him, I changed the name from "James Smith" to..

" _Haywood Jablomi?!_ " James exclaimed, holding back a laugh.

"Ah, depends on how much you're willing to pay." I winked at him, and I was met with a slug to the shoulder,  _hard_. I rubbed it in circles and stuck my tongue out at him. "Take a joke once in a while, Haywood!"

"You suck, Henry." James laughed, standing up from his chair and tucking the wallet back into his pocket. Hell, we deserved something fun after all the crap we'd just gone through.


	6. Chapter 6

**P.O.V James Samuel Winchester**

* * *

 

It's a funny thing, optimism. It's not one of those things that can ever be measured, or recorded even. And it's so intangible it's almost hard to detect, because you never know if someone could just be faking it. My cousin isn't really an optimist, unfortunately. And I'd say I was, but not in the starry-eyed damsel in distress kind of way. Let me explain.

I hate to bring in that old analogy of the cup half full or empty, but that's what I'm going to do (so bite me). See, Henry would probably say the cup was half water, half nothing. But you see, that space without liquid is never 'nothing.' That space is being occupied by millions upon millions of invisible particles of oxygen and nitrogen and carbon dioxide, not to mention how heavy each little cubic centimeter of that 'nothing' would be underneath our crushing atmosphere.

See, there's really no such thing as 'nothing.' Things can get close, but it's something that can never happen. The closest we've ever gotten to nothing would have to be the condensation of our universe in the very dense, very unstable mass of  _stuff_  before the big bang happened. They say that our entire universe, everything we know and could ever even imagine, was around the size of a teacup. But you see, that's still not nothing. That's my kind of optimism, the very comforting fact that no matter what, there will always always be  _something_. 'Nothing' is a concept that is utterly impossible to actually achieve.

Sorry if I've gone off on a tangent, it seems to happen to me a lot. My dad always jokes and asks if I'm sure I'm not Sam's kid, by the way my brain whirrs and makes connections and theorizes until I realize I've been spacing out for close to half an hour and the tea I was holding midway to my mouth has grown stone-cold. But see, I know I got it all from Cas. I would be perfectly content to just sit and think and observe for hours just like him.

So, what had I been talking about again? Oh yeah, optimism. See, all those thoughts had just rushed in and out of my mind in the time it took for Henry to give me a few pats on the back and point to a pretty girl sitting all by herself.

"All yours, babe. Here goes nothing." He gave me a gentle nudge in that direction, and I start to walk. But shit, with that 'here goes nothing' now I'm thinking about all that talk of nothing again.

I am notoriously bad at picking up chicks, another aspect I got from Cas that I really didn't want to inherit. They say puns are the scum of joke world, and I agree. But that doesn't mean that I don't love them and will embarrass myself to the world with them.

I nervously run my hand through my hair and slide on the barstool.  _Fuck you, Henry_. I shoot out, letting a little smile twitch onto my lips. He didn't reply, but when I saw him in the corner of my eye he made a few arm motions like he was picking up a girl and making her sit on his dick as he thrusted the air a few times. I slipped him a quick middle finger and then finally smiled at the girl. She looked a bit younger too, around twenty-two or twenty-three.

"Do you smell smoke?" I asked, sniffing and pretending it was a legitimate question. The girl sniffed and then frowned. "I lost my sense of smell five years ago in a culinary school accident, you asshole."

Shit. Okay, that really caught me off gaurd. "Because you're on fire?" I completed the pun timidly, scrubbing the short hairs on the back of my neck. God, this was almost as bad as last time.

"I'm just fucking with you. I just hoped you wouldn't go through with that awful pick up line, but you just went for it, didn't you?" She laughed and took a swig of her beer. "I'm Miranda. Nice to meet you, awful-pun-boy."

I smiled. "I'm..." I suddenly remembered that stupid ID. "Uh, Haywood."

"Come here often?" She asked, and I basically melted under her eyes.

"No. Me and my cousin are just passing through."

I looked back and saw Henry happily chatting up a guy who looked like he was  _very_  interested. Dammit, he had all the girls and guys all over him whenever he really tried. I could barely even get the one gender to like me. At least he was sort of making me his apprentice, even though he did make me do dumb stuff somtimes just for kicks.

Henry made his way over and slid onto the stool next to me, and the guy he was chatting up left. Henry sometimes just liked a fun conversation, never to see the person ever again. I was guessing this was one of those times.

"Hey, Miranda! Your break ended, like, five minutes ago!" Another worker who was wiping off tables scolded her. "Sorry, cutie. I gotta get back to work." She said, flashing me a smile. "Maybe I'll catch you later?" I nodded lamely and she went out to the back to go and put her apron back on.

"Hey, couz!" I heard Henry call to me from the other side of the bar.

 

"Hm?" I quickly turned to took back at him, it was then that I noticed something peculiar. I did a double-take, actually.

He had a large, plasma-like translucent shadow enveloping his body, but it wasn't like I haven't seen it before. The problem was it wasn't shrinking back down at all.

"Hey, did you see this?" I asked him, nodding at the fluid and moving aura that surrounded him. "Why isn't it going back?" That was really weird. I had my own shadow of influence that I'd used a few times to move things telekineticically or influence something without touching it, but it never stayed out like this. Especially not this much of it.

"Hm. I have no idea," Henry answered sleepily, his head bobbing just a little. "I feel funny." He whined, and I tilted my head to the side.

"HJ, there's no way you've had enough to be drunk right now." I said, the way he was acting was scaring me. Sure, he said he'd needed a drink, but maybe it wasn't such a good idea to head out so soon after he'd used so much energy.

"I started getting a headache so I took some pain pills." Henry explained, slurring. "Shit didn't work." He suddenly fanned his face, which had started to get a little ruddy. "Heh heh. Hey, James. Do I look hot to you? I don't mean the sexy kind."

I looked over him from head to toe, narrowing my eyes and trying to see what was wrong besides that extremely apparent three-dimensional shadow that surrounded him. He suddenly gripped the table tightly, sending shooting cracks radiating out from the wood where his hand was squeezing. The loud splinters immediately got everyone's attention.

My head whipped to look at him, and my heart skipped a beat when I realized something was wrong. " _James_ ," He insisted through gritted teeth, and I knew something was really wrong this time.

He screamed in his true voice, and every single shotglass and cup exploded on the far wall, as well as the windows in the front. Henry fell to the floor and collapsed on his hands and knees. I got just a glimpse of his true form before I immediately grabbed him and flew in a panicked crashlanded back in the batcave. We could never catch a break, now could we?

* * *

"What's wrong with him?" I insisted, to my dad, as I stared down Henry on Sam's bed and felt that deep pinch down in my gut like when I'd worried about my cousin before.

Cas reached out and touched his shoulder, and the barely-there shadow that was encompassing his body swayed just a little. "You see this, don't you?"

I nodded and swallowed down that rising lump in my throat. "It's never been that big before. Or even stayed out," I tried to keep my voice from trembling. I'd noticed the shadows before, when things were moved without touching them, but the shadow always sprang back like elastic.

"His shadow of influence must have been stretched too far when he used it to tear out the demons. Yours or mine could never get this big, only archangels have this much radius of power. And the fact that it was forced to become this large, when he's this young..." I tried to hold back tears as I felt a rush prick into my eyes.

"It's tricking his grace into thinking something's wrong. It's compensating, it believes he's much older than he really is-"

I suddenly understood. "Do you mean...the pain..it's additions?"

He squinted and shook his head. "Not really. It's not normal, this is throwing his entire balance off. I'm seeing almost fifteen trying to come in at the same time...there could possibly be even more." He rolled Henry to lie on his back and cupped his cheek, which was wet with tears. "They are only supposed to occur every decade or so. The more there are, the older and higher status the angel is. You know that." I nodded again, and noticed how Henry's shadow was rippling, draping on the ground, contracting unsuccessfully, trying in vain to pull back together again.

"They come in one at a time because of the energy it takes to grow, and it only caused discomfort the first few times. I don't even notice anymore when I begin to expand my form. But with him, now...there's not enough energy for these to all really grow fully with it distributed like this. And..." He sighed and ran a hand down his face. "It's never happened like this before, not that I know of. First additions are of animals parts, never...the first is never a Face. It must be excruciating."

I looked into his body to see his true form, and I felt my face grow pale as I had to steady myself with the bedpost. His deformities were horrifying, lumps and bulges, half-formed animal parts willy-nilly, another conjoined face pulling away from his, a half-formed tiger. It was grotesque, it was completely unexpected.

"No." The word slipped from my lips as I found my hand had wandered to my chest. "That's not him. That's not Henry." I couldn't help myself from looking again. Three tentacles curled and uncurled, stretching underdeveloped muscles. A stunted lion tail tried in vain to curl with deformity, unidentifiable bulges were sprouting feathers or coarse hair, a dark grey and wrinkly elephant's ear flapped like the wing of a doomed butterfly. I snapped away from that vision and opted to look at his human form instead.

His eyes were squeezed shut, his face was pale and with a sheen of sweat. His lips were pulled into a frown, and his eyelids would twitch as his whole body trembled. "He needs his father." Cas said in a cold voice, reaching out and stroking his cheek again. "Gabriel should have been there to warn him. He's too different as an archangel's nephilim; the spectrum between human and archangel is much larger than that of a seraph and human. There are dangers to him that my brother didn't even  _think_  to explain." He sounded pissed, even protective of my cousin.

"How is he going to be fixed? What's going to happen to him?" I let my voice tremble as my first hot tear spilled from my eye. He shook his head and closed his eyes. "I don't know, James."

He pulled the hot water bottle from the bedside table, and pulled the floppy pink object to rest of Henry's left side of his face, and he finally opened his eyes just a little. The look in his eyes told me he wasn't entirely there. "You're not my father, Cas." He growled, making no move to lean into the water bottle. "You don't have to take care of me. That's not your job." He said feverishly, clenching his fists with the pain.

"I'm doing this because I want to. Because I love you." He pressed the heated rubber to Henry's cheek, and he seemed to relax a little bit as another tear slipped from under his eyelid.

"Hold this here, James. I must retrieve Gabriel." He indicated for me to keep the object in place, which I rushed to do. I felt Henry's forehead and pushed his hair back as I heard my dad disappear behind me with a flap of feathers.

Henry had his eyes halfway open, and he was blantantly avoiding my gaze. A few seconds of silence passed, and I made sure that enough pressure was on his cheek and that my sight wouldn't slip back into seeing his true form.

"I'm hideous, aren't I?" He whispered hoarsely, looking off to the side with a haunted expression.

"No. Of course not, Henry." I lied through my teeth, pushing his damp hair off his forehead again. "There's a lot, I mean, and they're very different..." I started, not quite sure how to explain what I had experienced. "They'll all smooth out, grow out...it's going to be okay." I tried to assure him in my best confident voice.

"How would  _you_  know that? How, James?" He bit my name out in a way I'd never heard before. He rarely ever called me James, it was usually Jimmy or some outrageous nickname. I looked into his eyes, and I'd never seen him look so desolate. "I'm not like you are. I'll never be like you." He shut his eyes and concentrated, and the large shadow that surrounded him was finally able to contract a few feet. Maybe if he was able to contain it again, the reaction would end.

"This is all my fault." I said as a tear trailed down my face. "If I hadn't gotten hurt..you wouldn't have needed to protect me, this whole reaction wouldn't have been triggered.." He frowned more deeply and shook his head.

"It's not your fault. Shut up." He closed his eyes. "This is because I'm archangel nephilim. It's not a natural combination, okay? I'm going to have problems. I'll always have problems."

"If that were true, then I'd always be here to help you." I shot back, and I dared to look at his true form again. Our cores aren't really human to start with; just a kind of blank, smooth body, ready to be adorned with the most beautiful features of God's creations. I wasn't much more than a little white creature roughly resembling a toddler with arms, legs, wings and antlers now. Henry's was overwhelming at first because everything was budding at the same time, but it wasn't so bad when I really looked and observed. That patch of plastic-like pinpricks would be a glossy, feathered area, and that lion tail would be golden and strong and would swish powerfully back and forth, and those octopus arms would be strong and exotic with neon blue circles adding a perfect amount of color to his form. Here was that damn optimism again that I couldn't really ever seem to shake off.

I saw a little buldge in his form, another additon pushing up, and I reached out and rubbed his shoulder. A little prickle of feathers began to sprout, and I was surprised as I recognized them as peacock. "It's going to be okay. It's going to be gorgeous when it's all finished." I assured him, trying to stay as optimistic as possible. "Just like my dad's. You look like you have almost as many as him already, HJ."

"God dammit, James!" He choked out, his body shuddered and shivered from the pain and he hissed out a breath. "I'm so fucking jealous of you!" He cried out, pushing the pink floppy water bag hard against his face, he must have been getting one of the twinges that I was very familiar with. "You  _always_  had your angel and human parents. I've only had one! My whole life!" He was sobbing now, and I kept my hand on his shoulder, tears streaming from my own eyes. "Henry, I'm sorry." I managed to choke out. "I'm sorry."

"And you get these absolutely  _beautiful_  stag antlers...and I get...I get these...horrifying deformities.." He was sobbing freely now, and he curled up and latched onto me, squeezing me into the tightest hug I've ever been in. "I'll never be like you, James! I'll never be as good as you are!"

I squeezed back. "You're wrong." I said quietly, struggling to keep my voice from wavering. "Because you'll be better."


	7. Chapter 7

Henry breathed slowly in and out, and he could feel every painful little suprise on his body as he shuddered. He zoomed in and out of consciousness, he hadn't even been aware that James was still sitting with him.

He groggily rose to wake up, and he realized something. Last time this had happened, there had been somewhere there who had fixed him up.

"Fenris. Fenrisulfr." He mumbled, turning in his sleep. He'd never had someone pray to him before, and he wasn't sure if it would work for half-angels, but he might as well try. "Please. Brother, I need your help. I need my family."

James felt his forehead and cupped his cheek, and Henry shuddered again and bit his lips. "James. I'm sorry for yelling at you." He whispered, and James wiped away a little sweat that had exuded from his cheek. "Shut up." James replied with a small smile, and Henry managed to smile just a little before he passed out cold again.

When he came to again, he felt something curled around his shoulders that was soft and warm, and rising up and down slowly. He peeked his eyes open and was met with an eyefull of jet black fur, and James was gone. He was sleeping curled tightly into the pitch wolf's stomach, his muzzle resting on Henry's outstetched knees.

When Fenris saw he was awake, Henry slumped over as he returned to his human form. "Fenris." Henry croaked, leaning into him as the black-haired man secured his shoulders.

"It sure was weird having you pray to me." The man rumbled in reply, letting Henry cling to him like a scared little kid. "It's nice to meet you, kid. What year are you from, anyway?"

"2038. But I first met you in 2025 when I was ten." Henry groaned again and curled into himself, he felt like he was on fire.

"You mean will meet." Fenris laughed and felt his forehead. "Damn, baby bro. You've got yourself in one hell of a pickle."

Henry frowned and shuddered. "Yeah, no fuckin' shit." He quipped, and squeezed his eyes shut. "I didn't know who else to ask for help." He said in a small voice this time, and he felt Fenris gently smooth down his hair. "But dad  _is_  coming to help you, right?"

Henry sighed. "Cas is looking for him. I don't know if he'll find him." A tear slipped from underneath his eyelids. "Fenris, it  _hurts_."

"Hey, chin up, okay? Dad will come. I promise." Henry felt that cozy envelopment of his body again and sunk into the soft black fur.  _Try and sleep._ Fenris told him, and rumbled out a deep sigh as his muzzle rested in Henry's lap. Henry was hoping Cas could find Gabe and bring him here. But he wasn't really quite sure how he would react when he did.

**Two Years Later, but 25 years previous (to Henry)**

Gabriel was quietly humming the Willy Wonka theme song and setting up the mobile when he felt arms around him. He chuckled and gave the mobile a little spin, making sure it had fluid movements for the baby to be able to use telekinesis on it when he was in his little crib.

Sam came and hugged him from behind, having to bend over quite a bit to rest his head on Gabriel's shoulder. "Jesus, Sam. I never took you as the type to be lovedrunk." Sam closed his eyes and just enjoyed the hug. "Hmmm. Shut up." He said quietly, smiling as he moved his hand to cover the pulsating warm spot on his chest. "Henry's right here?" He asked, feeling the light make a little pulse of warmth into his palm. Maybe that was the equivalent of a kick. "Umhm. Bastard's hungry as hell, too. Must have got his appetite from you." Sam rolled his eyes and kept his hand over that blisteringly hot skin. "Is that...hurting you?"

"No. It feels like a glow, kind of." Gabriel tried to explain the all emcompassing warmth he had, and as he took a deep breath he felt the light move along with his ribcage. It was different than with any of his other children, who were of Earth. Henry was a child of Light, and it was...nice.

"Are you going to be okay?" Sam asked, worrying again.

"You keep forgetting he's just my first nephilim, not my first kid." Gabriel replied, putting his own hand on top of the warm spot, just checking in. He could already hear Henry's thoughts; they were jumbled, the simplest and barest he'd ever heard, but they were there.

 _Warm_. It wasn't the word really, but more the thought without a word, a languageless sense.  _Cozy. Dad. Happy. Love. Sleepy. Hungry. Cozy. Warm._ He was happy today.

"I don't know if I should be reassured or jealous." Sam had a little half-laugh, as he pulled Gabe's hand away and spread his own palm over the light again.  _Touch. Nice. Happy. Gentle._

"Maybe neither. You should be concerned. I've had sex with a fuckin' horse, Sam." Gabriel shot back, his chest bumping with laughs as Sam tried to keep his hand in place.

"I don't care." He answered right away, shutting his eyes and hugging him around his shoulders.

"I literally let myself get fucked by a horse. And this dick has touched Ice giantessess, Sammy." Gabriel laughed again, but he laughed even harder at Sam's response.

"More experience then."

"You're such a freak." Gabe smiled and felt the light in his chest stir slightly, expanding with a small stretch. He was growing a lot these days.

"I know." Sam dipped his head just a little and gave him a quick peck on his neck. "But he's going to be the most like an angel, right? Out of all the kids you've had?"

"Yeah. He feels different than his brothers. In a good way." Gabriel gave the mobile another little twirl.

"Good." Sam replied curtly, gently spreading his palm over the hot spot of his skin just one more time before standing up fully again. "I'm heading out. I'll see you for dinner, okay?"

Gabriel twisted around and pulled his face closer and planted a happy little kiss on his lips. Sam immediately went bright red and coughed into his hand. Gabe was laughing and holding the place on his chest with two hands. "S-sorry." Gabriel chuckled, laughing as Sam covered his face in his hands, but even his ears were bright red. "I forget this is going to take you a little getting used to. And I'm all hopped up on angel hormones, or whatever it's called for us."

Sam sniffed and ran a hand down his face, which was still ruddy in the cheeks. "Hey, um, it's okay. Just..maybe a little less abrupt next time?" Gabe smirked and nodded. "Yeah, sure. You know, it's a little too weird to be preggers without the sex. Things are just awkward when it's just from that soul-mixing."

Sam flushed again and ran a hand through his hair. "Just..um..take care of yourself, okay? And him?"

"Alrighty-o, Sam." Gabe smiled and turned back to the mobile, the little planets from faraway universes. It was then that he recieved the message. He brought his eyebrows together, confused. "...Dad?" And he flew right to where he'd called him.

...

It was not easy to hear what God had planned for him. The entire conversation, he had his hand cupped over the hot skin on his chest where the extra grace was growing.

"You know I've already paired up, Dad. Dammit, I've got a kid on the way." Gabriel covered the warm spot up with his hand and scowled. "I hate to tell you this, but I'm taking a rain check. My human and my son need me."

His father was not happy to hear that. "Your  _heavenly family_ needs you. All I have is you and Michael, and theres a hell of a lot of things to clean up. I cant do this without you, son. If you don't aid me, the world your son is raised into won't be much of a world at all."

Gabe screwed up his face and bargained. "Ten years with him. His first ten years, thats all I ask. Then I'll join you and Mikey with damn reckless abandon."

"I'll give you one. Until His first birthday, that's it. And you know even that's a stretch. We're going to be cleaning up, and these creatures arent so easy to get rid of. They'll go after where it really hurts. So if you want to keep Henry safe, you have to never see him between that period and when this all ends. Understand?"

Gabe felt a deep anger as he spoke up again, louder than before. "I can't do that. I can't just abandon my first nephilim. I can't abandon my human."

God was looking pissed now. "That or that light of yours gets terminated. That would be the easiest option, ethics aside. He is  _immortal_ , Gabriel. When this is over, it won't matter anymore. It's terrible timing, I agree, but you must come with me and your brother. "

So Gabriel agreed. What else was he supposed to do?

First year painfully reminded Sam of the time bomb with Dean's countdown to hell. Sam didn't know if he could do it by himself. He couldn't bear it if Henry grew to hate his father, who did so much for him.

"How much more time left, Gabe?" Sam asked quietly one day as he watched Gabriel playing with the small baby in his arms, hugging him tightly in his golden wings. Gabriel scowled and hugged the burbling baby closer as his hand opened and closed, playing with his feathers.

"Let's not do this counting thing, Sam. Let's just pretend I don't have a ticking clock on my forehead, okay?"

And when that year was up, Sam was left alone with a child just one day over a year old. And the archangel left without knowing when or if he'd ever see his baby again.


	8. Chapter 8

James came out of Henry's room and slid right next to Dean, who had his head in his hand and his other nursing beer. "How's he looking?" Dean asked, taking another sip of beer. James covered his face in his palms and Dean awkwardly decided to put his arm around his shoulder for a quick squeeze. It was hard for him to let himself get close to people, but at least he was making an effort.

"Hey, look. Cas is going to find Gabe, okay? Henry's going to be fine." Dean said, and James slid his elbows to rest on the table, and he slowly folded his eyes open to look at Dean. His eyes weren't a bright blue like Cas's, but a deep, indigo blue that reminded Dean of the Hope Diamond. Dean felt almost a little jolt as he looked into his eyes, in seeing that they were blue, it reminded him of Cas. And he looked sad and worried as hell, an expression he often saw on the angel.

Dean felt like he suddenly had a million questions that he needed to ask him, all bubbling up and competing for which one got to be said aloud. "So, uh, what's...it like in the future?" He felt extremely lame right after he'd said it. James shrugged and grabbed Dean's beer that he'd set down and took a sip.

"I dunno. It's normal, I guess." James tipped back a sip of beer. 

Dean glared at him as James gave him a sly sidelong glance and proceeded to drink most of the rest of his beer.

"Yeah, of course you can take that. Thanks for asking." Dean chuckled and studied James' face again. "And what's that necklace you're always wearing?" 

"Oh, this?" James blinked shly and chuckled, his hand wandering up to his chest. " You said Grandpa Bobby gave it to Uncle Sam who gave it to you. First time time-traveling for practice, I fished it out of a trash can at some seedy motel. Jeez, I barely even notice I'm wearing it anymore. You can, uh, have it back if you want." 

"My amulet, huh?" Dean tried very hard to hide the smile that was threatening to split down his face. To try and hide it, he coughed into his palm instead. "No, you...uh, you keep it. That's um...that's great that you wear it now, Jamie." 

Dean was finally wanting to really be able to talk to James one on one since he'd dropped into his life, and now seemed like the perfect time. "James, I still...I don't know how...I never expected to have a kid, you know." 

James pressed his lips together and set Dean's bottle down on the table. "Yeah, well. I guess you weren't expecting Grampa to come back and start rearranging stuff either, huh?" He gave Dean one of those sidelong glances again and ran his hand through his messy hair.

"You've said before that you see that nothing else would have worked, human kids just aren't right for you, dad. It's hard to kill me or Henry, and the last thing you need in the family is more dead."

Dean looked like he couldn't agree more. "But how...how did it _work_? And.." Dean looked a little freaked out all the sudden. "And nothing's going to happen to you like what Henry's going through, right? You'll be fine."

James nodded, his eyes clouding with worry for his cousin again. "As for how...Cas doesn't talk much about it. We've only had a conversation once. All I know is that I'm the result of a sort of mix of souls." He looked like he was contemplating on what to say next. "And the only other thing I know is that it was difficult."

Dean knit his eyebrows together. "What do you mean?"

"Well, Cas says it was difficult. Everything. He said he was taking care of Henry too, not that Sam wasn't, he was helping with his angel-side, which was a full-time job. And there were some things that made it complicated. I don't think either of you thought it was possible." James smiled just a little and looked away shyly. "Cas says it was a miracle." A little bit of pink flushed on his cheeks. "Never mind. I guess you'll find out."

Dean's chest suddenly began to rise a little. So, it was really going to happen. He was going to have a kid. And some time in the future, he'd get to see the kid in front of him grow up. He'd get to hold him sleeping in his arms, watch him take his first steps, teach him how to ride a bike and throw a football and shoot a gun-

"And me in Cas..? Are we...uh..." Dean asked, not quite sure where he was going with that question. What was going to happen with him and Cas? What Henry had said made it seem like was that Gabe paired with Sam to prevent Lucifer from having a kid, and that Gabriel wasn't around for Henry. But what about Cas?

James laughed, raised his eyebrows high and nodded enthusiastically.

 "The hell is that supposed to mean?" Dean demanded defensively.

"Anything you want it to mean." James smirked. 

Dean snorted and picked up his beer again. "So much for getting straight answers." He mumbled before bringing the bottle up to his lips. 

"Pun intended?" James coughed into his fist, laughing a little to himself.

"Huh?"

"Oh, Nothing." James answered, stretching his back on the chair. Oh, Dean.

His spine popped loudly as he stretched his arms high above his head. It had been pretty uncomfortable having to sit in that position with his cousin for so long, not wanting to disturb Henry by moving and possibly hurting him. It was only when Fenris had arrived that James had stiffly gotten up and helped to tuck Henry to cradle in his half-brother's wolfy embrace.

"Just be careful with him, okay? Don't, like, eat him or something." James said with a little laugh, helping to position the limp body so he'd be comfortable. The dark wolf let out a sort of snort and snuffled.

 _Maybe I'll consider not eating him, but only if you ask nicely._ He obviously wasn't able to talk in this form, but James could hear him clear in his head like when he and Henry communicated silently.

"You're just as much of an ass as him." James chuckled and felt Henry's forehead, he was still burning up. James' mind had been reeling over trying to grasp the concept of time travel ever since he'd been here, and he thought it would be the best idea to ask another half-angel and see if he knew some answers.

"So, this is the first time you're meeting Henry, right?" James asked quietly as he sat down in front of Henry and kept his eyes on his sleeping face for just for a little while. "So, when you meet him when he's ten, is that going to be changed?"

 _I think so._ Fenris replied, and he flicked his eyes up to look at Henry again.  _You told me I was the one who found him after this happened last time, correct?_

"Yeah. And this didn't happen to him last time, but he did the exact same thing. Pushed out and ripped people's insides to shreds." James gulped and almost felt a little overwhelmed at the things he'd seen his cousin do while he watched. He wasn't...scared of him, per se, but he was afraid that if he wasn't there to support him and give him someone to lean on...people have turned sides for much less. He just hoped that would never become a reality. He didn't even like to think about it.

 _I think_...Fenris started, and while James watched the shadow finally began to pull back into Henry's body.  _Pops showed me how one time when I was little. Maybe...in meeting him now, I prevented it then._

"So we  _can_  change the future?" James asked, his eyes lighting up just a little bit. Maybe, just maybe, he could make things different. "And, now we just wait for what he has right now to develop, right? No new additions?"

 _Exactly._ The huge wolf pushed his head onto Henry and pulled him a little closer, giving him a little lick on the cheek as he groaned softly.  _Good thing, too. This looks like it sucks.  
_

"Dammit, he's going to be pissed off later about this. I think he's just too tired right now to do anything." James stood up, and the wolf's gaze followed him as he'd exited the room.  _I'll try my best not to eat him. But if the hunger strikes..._ Fenris huffed out a few breaths again like he was laughing.

"Oh, shuddup." James had called back.

"How's Uncle Sammy holding up with all of this?" James asked Dean, still stretching like a cat as he let out a big yawn. Dean thought about how Sam was dealing with Henry being back here; a hell of a lot better than he was doing. "Ah, I think seeing Fenris is kind of freaking him out. And I think he's worried about seeing Gabe for the first time since this happened." Dean answered James, who nodded a little and went right back to worrying. Dean just had to tell someone, and get it off his chest.

"I, uh, got in a fight with Cas." Dean admitted in a sigh. "I was angry that you had to be a Hunter. That he chose me." He frowned just a little remembering it.

"You weren't the one who made me and Henry Hunters, dad. We kind of always were. Half-dicks, remember?"

Dean smiled just a little at the nickname.

Dean felt a little relieved at hearing that. And Cas had been right; a kid that was hard to kill was just what he needed. He kind of felt like "that kid" who got the plastic sippy cup while the other kids got glass cups when it came to childcare, but right now he was really more glad for that. "I'm still not over that nickname." He answered, chuckling.

Then, there was a bright and quick flash of light, like a camera flash, and Dean and James exchanged a glance. Light meant time travel. And if Cas had set out to find Gabe...had he brought the one from the future back here?

* * *

Gabriel kept his hand on Cas's shoulder in a soft squeeze. Cas looked into his face with his lips pressed tightly together, the lingering anger was still there for when he saw Henry in a world of pain and his own brother hadn't warned him about things that could happen. 

"C'mere," Gabriel beckoned, pulling Cas forward into a hug. 

"Thank you for finding me." Gabriel smiled sadly. "You're a great brother, Cas, you know that?" This version of the archangel seemed so worn out, his eyes had much less of his typical luster and playful shine. 

"Why didn't you warn him? _Help_ him?" Cas's features stayed hardened. "No person deserves to suffer like that."  _  
_

"It's complicated, Cassie, I can't tell you everything now." Gabriel sighed. "If I could, Jesus Christ, I would."

Cas nodded, his eyes growing sad. 

Henry slowly opened his eyes as he felt a hand on his shoulder. It took a second for his vision to focus, but he finally saw him. Gabriel, looking down at him with his eyebrows knit together. He could tell right away that it wasn't the one from this time just by the aching way he was looking at him.

Henry felt the word, ready to surge up his throat and spill out in astonishment, that signature "Dad?" he always asked. But this time he bit it back just in time as he clenched his jaw, and narrowed his eyes.

"Oh, how wonderful of you to show up. I wonder what Cas had to say to even convince you to see me for once, you bastard." The pain was heightening his emotions, acting as a catalyst toward his rage and anger already. "Since when have you even  _cared_ , you piece of shit?!" He wiped his wet eye anngrily with the back of his hand. Gabe tried to come closer, but Fenris growled loudly and pulled Henry closer with his tail, the low rumble could be felt behind Henry's back.

"Stay out of this, Fenrisulfr. This is not of your concern. And you don't know the whole story." Gabe said in a tired voice, coming closer again and gently taking Henry's face in his hands, this time the wolf permitted him to with just a somewhat peeved glance.

"No! Get your hands off of me!" Henry sobbed, shaking his head from side to side and twisting away, tears streaming from his eyes. "You're just my father, not my dad! Cas and Dean were even better dads to me than you were! You were never there for me!  _Ever._ " He seemed to have burned himself out, and he sat panting, shying away into the wolf's flank, tears dripping from his eyes.

"That's not true." Gabriel replied, and he cupped Henry's frowning face in one of his palms, and Henry let him with no resistance this time as he hiccuped and a tear slid down his face. "Let me help you remember."

Memories from a long time ago, long pushed down by childhood amnesia, began to surface, being tugged upward to be viewed after they'd been seemingly erased for twenty-three years. Henry watched as almost every single memory from his first year of life had been in Gabriel's arms, full of golden feathers and rattles and crawling toward outstretched arms and spinning mobiles and bottles. He'd barely even let him out of his arms until his first birthday.

"Why did you leave me, then? Why did you leave _us_?" Henry pleaded in a broken whisper, looking up at Gabriel with unshed tears brimming in his eyes.

 Gabriel opened his arms Henry easily fell into them, burying his face his in neck and he was shaking from the pain squeezing through his veins.

"I didn't want to." Gabriel replied, wrapping his arm around him and finally chuckling a little. "Aw, baby. You weren't supposed to be taller than me."

Henry sniffled and a laugh forced its way out of his throat, bubbling wetly. "Well, sorry. I did that on purpose to spite you." Gabriel held him tightly and sighed. "I see Fenris already helped you retract your influence, huh?" Henry nodded a little and closed his eyes.

"Well, I'll stay with you. Just for now." Gabriel tucked the young man into his arms, and his shoulders were unfamiliar, but the aura of his grace was so achingly familiar. "This'll be over soon, sweetheart." Henry sighed and nodded, clinging tightly to him and breathing deeply, hissing out a breath. Gabriel hesitated, but he finally spoke up and smoothed down his hair. 

He let his mind wander as Henry began to fall asleep in his arms, he remembered the first time he heard the news, the day that all his plans changed.

He'd dropped back into the room on light feet, he swayed a little, which was extremely uncommon for him. He felt numb despite the warmth coursing through his body. He couldn't believe what he'd just been told. No, not told. Ordered.

"Gabe?" Sam asked when he saw him, immediately looking concerned as he rushed forward and looked into his face, trying to guess on what went wrong. "Where did you go?"

He met Sam's eyes, and spread his palm over his chest and looked down at his hand. "Sam." He choked out, closing his eyes slowly. Sam gripped his shoulders and kneeled down, looking deep into his face. "Hey, tell me what's wrong. Is he okay? Is he hurting you?" Gabriel shook his head and a tear slipped from his eye.

"He..he gave me a year, Sam." He spoke up again, pressing harder onto the patch of hot skin as if he could hold him closer. Sam looked extremely confused, shaking his head a little as he searched his face. "A year..a year for what? Until what?"

"I can't...my father won't let me stay. He says I have work to do. It would be dangerous, and...I can't bring Henry into it. He's giving me a year until I have to join him. " Wordlessly, he rushed foward and wrapped himself in Sam's chest. Sam gently folded his arms around him, he was pale-faced from the news himself. "But..how..what am I supposed to do? I hardly know anything about angels, much less archangels, and I don't know if I could do it by myself, Gabe."

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." The angel whispered into his clothes. "I never wanted this to happen. I wanted to stay." Sam felt little spots of water leak into his clothes. "I know." Sam shut his own eyes and hugged him closer.

That night they'd lay down and Gabriel had talked for hours and hours about what Sam would need to do to take care of Henry. More than anything he wanted to do what he'd done before, go off the map, get under the radar, so he could stick with his family.

He'd just been outlining needs for around when he'd be around five when Gabriel suddenly stopped and peered up at Sam. "What if...what if I fell, Sam?" He asked, breathing deeply and feeling the nodule of grace in his chest as well as his own substance swirling and living inside the vessel he occupied. "It wouldn't be so bad. It would be worth it."

Sam's eyes went wide and his breath caught in his throat. "Gabe, you can't do that. You can't do that for me. And if God really does need your help..."

"I know." He sighed and ran a hand through Sam's hair. "I guess it's just nice to pretend." Sam looked down and Gabriel gently tipped his chin up. Gabriel's eyes were shining as he narrowed his eyes. "Listen to me very carefully. You have to make sure that he has complete and total indifference towards me. Understand?"

Sam pressed his lips together. "I...I'll try. I just wish.."

"I know." He pulled slowly forward and gave Sam a slow kiss on the lips, pulling away and smiling as Sam just looked like a little puppy out at him with wide eyes. "Hey, no case of the red-face today, huh?" He tried to joke light-heartedly.

"I just can't believe this is happening." Sam replied sadly.

"Me neither, kiddo."

Gabriel gently rubbed Henry between the shoulder blades on his broad back as the lanky kid wrapped around him gave a small snore. Fenris let out a huff and spoke up.

 _He's sad, pops._  He said quietly into his mind.  _You shouldn't have left him like that. I can see his mind..he has a bitter spot, that's one dark stain that's not going to go away._

"I wanted him to be indifferent." He replied in a futile attempt to explain himself. He looked down and swept some of the long hair from his sleeping face. "And I'll have to leave soon again. My work still isn't done, son."

 _But what if we could change all this? Everything?_ Fenris spoke up _. We could_.

"You could." Gabriel answered. "Balthazar has done it before." He looked at Henry again, shuddering and hurting, he saw that bitter stain of dark anger that Fenris had described. He realized with a jolt where he'd seen that kind of thing before; on his brother Lucifer. He concentrated and looked deeper.

It was Lucifer's. A strange, foreign light that had no business being in his grace, and Gabriel had no idea how it got there or why.

"I realize now, why they had to come back." Gabriel spoke up aloud in astonishment. "They have to change this. They need to change everything."

He saw everything, and all the horrible potentials. Nephilim had been outlawed because of their strength and because they were caught in the middle of two species, no fixed allegiances. They were dangerous. And now he saw that if things stayed the same, it wouldn't have mattered that Gabriel had prevented Lucifer from reproducing, because Henry would wind up the same result. But only if the foreign grace, implanted in him, was allowed to fester.

He saw now. His own son was the snake egg that everyone had tried to prevent from outlawing Lucifer to have offspring.

"Fenris.  _Fenris_!" Gabriel whispered loudly, cradling the tall young man's head in his palm. "You have to tell them, when I leave. That demon wasn't the only reason they're here."

Fenris melted back into his human form, frowning. "What am I supposed to tell them, dad?"

"Tell them...that Lucifer will have a son, and that they have to stop that. Do not tell them that Henry has this..thing inside, and that he's the potential one. Do that for me, okay? I will have to leave soon." Gabriel felt a dark emotion in his chest and swallowed down the lump in his throat.

"Poor Henry." Fenris frowned. "I'll tell them, dad. But I won't tell them about li'l bro and that devil's shard he's carrying."

"Good." Gabriel said curtly back. "Take care of him when I leave, alright?"

"Duh." Fenris laughed and curled around the two of them as a dark wolf once again.


	9. Chapter 9

Gabriel had been staying awake as his two sons slept around him, and he guessed it was around two in the morning when he heard someone stumbling around outside the room and finally made his way inside, filling the room with blaring light.

Sam had little red creases on his cheek, and a textured pattern from the couch. Gabriel could tell; he'd been dreading having to see him, as well as scared out of his mind of Henry's current state. His sleepy brain must have made him forget and come back into his room.

"Hi, Sam." Gabriel said quietly, and Sam's face began to flush a light pink. "Sorry. I forgot you three were in here." He had an unsure expression on as he began to back away from the door.

"We didn't have sex for him, if that's why your panties are in a wad." Gabriel said quietly, chuckling just a little at Sam's relieved reaction and he rubbed Henry's broad back gently, he was still leaning on him heavily and was in a deep sleep. "Just come in already."

Sam hesitated before coming in and sitting at the foot of his bed. "How's he doing?" He asked quietly, his eyes were dull from lack of sleep and worrying. Gabriel looked down at his sleeping face and frowned just a little.

"He should be back on his feet by tomorrow. All this sleep is helping him." Gabriel peered into his true form; he still looked a little underdeveloped, but at least it wasn't that mess of tangled, malformed new parts anymore. He would probably look like a normal angel within the year-just at least a hundred thousand years older than he really was.

"That's good." Sam added groggily, rubbing his eye. He paused for a second, blinking sleepily and yawning. "You look different, Gabe." He looked sad as he stated this fact.

"That's because I am different." He replied simply, frowning a little as he took in Henry's sleeping features once again. "All this work has changed me. I lost the right to my family and went to work with my brother and father against evils so vile you can't even imagine...virtually unkillable, even to big strong daddy-o." He huffed out a frustrated breath.

"Now I'm about to tell you something that you won't want to hear." His voice dropped even lower, it sounded dangerously sad. "You know my brother Lucy, he was cast out, and allowed to fester in his hate for so long that he became the most wicked soul in existence." Sam nodded, looking a little scared. Why was he telling him this?

"I see Henry's soul. And...I see that the same kind of corruption has started. I know it's small now, but we're immortal. And if it's given time to spread and grow and change him..." Both Gabriel and Sam looked like they didn't want Gabriel to continue speaking.

"But..but..you can't just.." Sam sputtered, then shut his eyes and tried to collect himself. "Look, Balthazar got in huge trouble for making all those new souls from the Titanic, right? We can't just...and I don't want to get rid of him." Tears began to sparkle in his eyes. "He's a total asshole and a little shit but I love him to the moon and back already."

Gabriel smiled and turned away this time. Dammit, there was the Sam that he was in love with. And he hadn't seen them both in so long. And he'd have to leave soon, again.

"I'm not saying we can't make him exist. That's already set in stone. Listen to me. You have to change  _this_  path, and I don't know how, but this can't continue to play out the way it's started. He's explained to you that you needed to be paired with so that Lucy wouldn't have a rugrat of his own, right? Well, it sucks, but that doesn't matter anymore that it's been prevented. Because Henry...in time, keep that in mind, would become his successor." He shuddered and looked at Sam with pleading eyes. "Tell the boys. They have to be the ones to change this fate." He closed his eyes slowly, his expression was full of pain.

"He's not..bad now, is he?" Sam asked uncertainly.

Gabriel shook his head. "No. Absolutely not, it's almost a..germinal stage. But it's still too late to change now."

Sam buried his face in his hands. "This is my fault, right? Because of my ties with Lucifer. I never should have-"

"No. It wasn't your fault at all. This was because of...something else entirely." Gabriel said firmly, and Sam pressed his lips together. There was a short moment of silence as Sam tried to let what he was told sink in.

"I'll tell the boys. We'll all work to try and prevent it."

Gabriel smiled a tiny smile at that news. "Good." He gently slid Henry to not lean on him as he remained sitting. "Wait, just one more thing I have to tell you. Come closer."

Sam stood and went to kneel in front of Gabriel. "What is it, Gabe?" He asked in a hushed voice. He didn't know if he could handle any more bad news.

"Here. Closer."

Sam looked confused but leaned a little closer, expecting for Gabriel to whisper in his ear. Instead, the archangel grabbed his face by the cheeks and planted one on his lips before pulling away with a wide grin. Sam sputtered inaudibly and his face burned bright red. "Aw, babe, it never gets old." Gabriel chuckled and straightened up. "I guess I'll be seeing you soon, Sammy." He said with the tiredness returning to his voice, and with a rush of feathers and quick burst of light he'd vanished again.

...

James was having a nightmare. He was sleeping on the couch again, this time he was next to his uncle Sam, as he thrashed and whimpered, twisting his fists into the sheets.

He'd dreamt that he was standing in some strange feild, where wild flowers bowed in the spring breeze, all the plants were utterly wild and tangled and creeping over each other. It would have been beautiful, but it was the events that were unfolding that made it so unpleasant.

Henry was standing directly across from James amongst the wildflowers, and an unfamiliar man was standing behind him, his hand clapped firmly to his shoulder. The person James was looking at was wearing a very uncharacteristic sneer; Henry usually had his face pulled into a mischevious grin with laughing eyes. Not this one. His blue-green eyes were burning with a cold flame, and his face was cold and stony.

"You don't have to. Henry, you don't have to do anything." James had said, a hint of pleading in his voice. " _Please_. We have free will, brother. You know that."

Henry glared at James. "I am doing this because I want to. Because I can choose this path." He looked back at the strange man as if for approval, who smiled reassuringly, but it was a cruel expression. "You can too, James. Choose to come with me. We've never left each other's sides before. Do you really think it was right to create all these nephil, only to treat us like dirt? Like we're undeserving of a place in Heaven?"

"We belong to Earth, Henry! It's our job to protect it, as a place we live! Heaven's job is to watch from above, not ours!" James felt tears sparkle and burn into his eyes. "You aren't Henry anymore. And I'd rather die than join you."

"As you wish." The man behind him commanded coldly, and James stiffened as he felt a force shove its way through his abdomen, wrapping around his insides with an iron grip, snaking upward and squeezing like a python. James' hands flew to his throat, and he was choking, staring out in disbelief at Henry, standing there with an indifferent expression on his face, his hand outstretched.

"H..Henry." James managed to choke out. "Please. Don't. Do this."

He felt the force tighten once more, ready to yank outward with a force more powerful than anything he'd ever be able to muster..James' chest flew up and he shot up in bed, gasping for air, he'd forced himself awake just before that nightmare Henry would rip him to bits.

"Hey, you alright?" James saw Henry in the dark, he'd opened the door to Dean's room and peered in. Someone must have moved James to the bed sometime during the night. James rubbed his eyes, he still felt shaken up. Henry came and sat on the edge of the bed. "...Do you want to talk about it?" James could tell he was in one of his rare sweet moods.

"Nah. It was pretty dumb anyway." He waved it off and yawned. "What are you doing up? You were supposed to be resting."

Henry shrugged, then smiled a little. "I'm feeling a lot better. It's-They're almost over. And I've been doing some scanning, trying to locate our  _lovely_  demons." James perked up and hugged a pillow to his chest. "Any luck?"

"That black-haired bitch, the space-traveller. I found her this morning. And there were other demons too. But.." A wrinkle formed between his eyesbrows in thought. "I think I know what they're doing to be so powerful, so have these abilities. They're consuming other demons."

James tilted his head to the side. "You mean like, eating them? Like, medium rare with a side of fries?" Henry chuckled, and James felt himself calming down greatly. "Yeah. And we need to stop them before they get much more power." James yawned again and lay his head back on the pillow. "Okay. We'll sneak out in the morning, but just let me catch a few more winks first."

"Sure." Henry replied, patting him on the shoulder. "Do you want me to read you a bedtime story? Hook up your nightlight to keep the scary dream monsters away?" James snorted and rolled over. "Good _night_ , shithead."

Henry chuckled and stood up off the bed. "Night, fuckface."

...

Dean was making coffee again the next morning, and was a little suprised when he saw the man he'd never met stumble out, dark bags under his eyes and his pitch black hair a mess.

He shared many features with Henry, but his eyebrows were more daunting and he was stockier and not as lanky. He was wearing a white tee and a necklace with a polished black arrowhead. He groaned and slid into a seat, running his hand through his messy bedhead.

"You must be Fenris." Dean said, turning back to the coffee machine.

"And you must be extremely intelligent to be able to figure that one out." Fenris' voice was dripping with sarcasm as he smirked up at him.

Dean rolled his eyes and threw his hands in the air. "I didn't ask for a family of assholes, dammit."

"Sorry. I'm just a little tired from having everyone sleeping on me all night. Sure, I'm like a huge pillow to them, but its uncomfortable as fuck for me, ya dig?" He laughed and scrubbed his hair again.

"So, you stopped the reaction with Henry, huh?" Dean asked. He still thought about how much he had to restrain himself from intervening knowing his nephew was all alone in a room with a gigantic wolf that supposedly had the strength to kill Odin during Ragnarok. "Hey, Henry and Fenris sound pretty alike. Mind if I call you Fenry?"

The man gave him a look that blared 'are you fucking kidding me?' "Not if you like having that pretty head on that little neck of yours, you won't." Fenris smiled just a little and cocked an eyebrow, and Dean ran a hand down his face.

"I am going to  _murder_  Sam for bringing this side into the family...."

"Dean." Sam stumbled out into the kitchen, a terrified expression on his face. "Dean, they're not here. They're both gone."

"Dammit." Dean slammed his hand on the table. "They're after those demons again, aren't they?" He looked seriously pissed off that even after all that, these boys still didn't seem to get the message. "Get Cas. We're going after these little shits right now."

...

The two boys stood side-by-side in the desolate abandoned bar, Asmodeus pacing back and forth in the confines of the sub-sigil, red staining her mouth as she paced like a caged tiger. Bodies were in a heap behind her, demon vessels she's drained for power.

"You can't stop me. I told you you can't kill me." She laughed with a evil sneer. "I can still do whatever I want." She lazily flicked her wrist up and James stumbled backward, a floorboard had sprung up and punched hard onto his face. His lip was split and blood flooded into his mouth, ironish and warm. The demon laughed cheerfully and clapped her hands. "Oh, do I enjoy seeing that little cutie bleed."

This seemed to set Henry off, who was already angry after the aftermath of the last time he'd seen her. "And I assure you I'm going to do the same to you."

The demon tinkled out another laugh, narrowing her green eyes. "You can't touch me." She jeered, licking just a little bit of the remaining blood from her lips. James felt the blood running into his hand as he watched his cousin with wide eyes.

"Didn't I warn you that you can't tell me what to do?" Henry growled, and James watched in horror as Henry's three-dimensional shadow began to bubble and surface, surging and exuding from his skin, where it quickly molded together to form a fluid aura surrounding him.

"You think you can try and kill my family and get away with it?" He demanded with narrowed eyes, and James' hands flew to his mouth as Henry's influence began to lash out- tendrils whipped around the room, all connected to Henry's body like a plasma globe's lightning, swirling and dragging across the walls, leaving deep tears in their wake.

Of course to the demon without angel-vision, the walls would seem to be ripping apart and the framed pictures shattering as if on their own accord. Henry's hair was slightly lilting in the breeze generated by the hundreds of whipping tendrils, and he narrowed his eyes and surged forward, gripping the woman's neck tightly with just one hand and pulling her to dangle above the ground.

"You stabbed my little brother. And you caused me the greatest pain in my life." James saw a powerful flame glinting in his eyes as he saw a branch of his influence shoot out, thrust upward, and snake around tightly onto the demon's inky black substance.

"Henry, don't! There are other things we can do! Please!" James called over the roaring noise of splintering walls and now a loud rush of wind. He couldn't stand the parallel to his nightmare. "Henry, please!"

"Rot in hell." Henry spat, and he thrust the shadow upward, wrapping tightly around the demon's black, corrupted soul, and yanked outward. The substance was completely torn out as it spattered to the floor like a spilled bucket of black paint. The room calmed right after that, the shadowy arms shooting right back into Henry's body, and he uncurled his finger's from around the young woman's throat. The room was suddenly blaringly quiet, the only sounds were tinkles of glass hitting the floor from the shattered picture frames.

James blinked up at Henry in disbelief. That wasn't him right then. He'd been heartless, terrifying and absolute in his new skill. And that cold, burning fire he'd seen in his expression..

"Henry." The name slipped from his throat, hurting his split lip a little to talk. James was almost ready for his cousin to turn around, to see that the flames were still there, to see a frightening expression on his face and to see his grace black and bitter with hate; instead, he saw him kneel down over the woman, who was gasping for breath and falling over in the chair.

"Hey heyhey. I'm right here, shhh, you're okay. We're going to get you to a hospital, alright?" He kneeled down and gently helped to fold the woman into his arms, and James sighed in relief when he saw his cousin's usual expression on his face.

"Don't tell me that wasn't badass." Henry spoke up, a wry smile stretching on his face as he began to amble towards the car with the woman out cold in his arms. "You know, maybe it isn't so bad having Gabe as my dad. That was easier than anything else, considering Uncle D's knife wouldn't work on her. Whattaya say? Bad boy enough for you?" He playfully winked at James. "Maybe I'll start wearing a black leather jacket with studs and join a biker gang. How 'bout it?"

James normally would have laughed, but this time he was frowning deeply. "I..Henry, I don't think you should do that stuff anymore." He looked down at his flannel and began tugging at the edges, something he always did when he was nervous. Henry looked taken aback as he brought his eyebrows together. "Jesus, Jimmy. Why the hell not?" He asked, giving him a confused look. "Look, Asmodeus is dead. Her vessel is still alive and kicking, and no one got hurt. What the hell are the downsides here?"

James frowned again and stood in front of the passenger's seat as Henry slid the girl into the backseat. "I just think...there are always consequences with stuff like that, okay? Uncle Sammy thought he was doing the right thing, exorcizing people when he was drinking that demon blood. And that backfired in his face, remember?"

Henry scowled and straightened up. "Dad always tried to do the right thing. And I will too.  _Always_." He stopped in front of James and towered over him, looking him up and down. "Why are you looking at me like that?" He asked, and James felt a little jolt at his cousin's realization.

"Like...what?" James tried to feign innocence, blinking up at his cousin's face as he peered down and observed him.

"You know 'like what', Jamie. Like you're fucking afraid of me or something." Henry looked a little taken aback as he considered if it would actually be true. " _Are_  you afraid of me?" He asked in a small voice.

"Henry-no." James answered quickly, avoiding his eyes. He let out a puff of air and felt guilty at even the thought of not telling Henry what was on his mind.

Next thing James knew his face was pressed to a flannel and fingers gripped into his back, one of his cousin's signature bone-crushing hugs.

"Sorry if..what I did..scared you." He said quietly, and James felt better right away. It really had terrified him seeing him tear apart that building in a matter of seconds, not to mention splattering that demon's soul like it was nothing.

"Truth is I didn't like doing it very much either." Henry pulled away and there it was: Sam's puppy-dog expression again. "It just didn't.. _feel_  like it was me, you know? Like I felt like it was someone else. And I don't like that someone very much." He smiled just a little, reassuringly, as he clapped James on the shoulder before rounding the car and pulling open the driver's door.

"Let's drop this little lady off at the doc's and then we'll head home. Sound good?" He asked, and James nodded, climbing in as well. He needed to stop worrying so much about Henry and instead focus on saving the freaking world from having two devils. It's not like he had a lot on his plate, anyway.

 


	10. Chapter 10

_Knock knock._

The two cousins were wearing the biggest and fakest smiles as the door to the Men of Letters HQ was opened, even though it hurt James' split lip a little. "Ahh, save it, you dumbfucks." Fenris was the one who answered the door, and he chuckled just a little, crossed his arms and leaned on the doorpost. "You two are in for it now. These boys are out for blood."

"You're so annoying." Henry pretended to be mad as he shoved Fenris out of the way, but erupted into laughter as he shoved back and twisted him into a headlock. James stiffened as he saw his parents, who had been anxiously waiting around, jump up and head toward the two of them.

"I wouldn't be laughing so soon if I were you." Dean said to Henry and Fenris, who immediately straightened up and Henry scrubbed his hair back in place. Sam also shot up right away when he saw Henry. "Are you okay? It's not a good idea to go on a case after..everything that happened to you.." Henry rolled his eyes as Sam came up and began to examine him all over with a troubled look on his face.

"Pops, I'm  _fine_." Henry huffed.

"What's this, then?" Sam asked, pointing to the bit of black that was still spattered to his jacket.

"I don't really know what it's called yet. It's like a demon soul." Henry tried to explain.

"And how did it get on you? It always burns up whenever we kill them." Sam squinted and tried to figure it out.

"I, um, kind of ripped it out." Henry looked a little uncomfortable all the sudden. "Look, how we did it doesn't really matter. What matters is one's down and we have one to go."

"I don't like that you left without telling us anything." Dean complained and crossed his arms. "James, what happened to your lip?"

James touched the tender skin and shrugged. "Meh."

Dean rolled his eyes but couldn't help but smile a little. "Okay, no more work for at least a few days. You're giving me grey hairs already. We should focus on this timeline instead." Of course Sam had told him what Gabriel had explained to him.

The five of them all went to sit in the projector room, as James tried to explain what he'd been theorizing for the longest time.

"Look. Apparently, you can't change the big stuff, right? Just like how you couldn't change the fact that Uncle Sammy got the demon blood in him from the demon deal. But you did change the fact that Grandpa John chose the Impala instead of another car, right?" James pointed to diagrams of hundreds of lines, of all different slopes and colors.

"Look, that one small change caused the slighest of a change in the timeline, and that tiny angle, even if it was .00001 percent of a degree, could multiply exponentially as the line progresses to actually skew the main timeline off course over time. If that one change can alter the fixed timeline just a little..."

James looked out to a very confused-looking Dean and Henry. "I literally cannot believe you're my son." Dean laughed, but he looked like he admired what he was trying to explain.

James looked just a little peeved as he pointed to the board again. "We have twenty-five years to change this timeline, the tricky part is finding out what. We need to rotate the axis just enough to make sure that a particular event doesn't happen. But we can't risk under or overrotating. We have to find the exact theta and merely bump the fixed timeline off path onto a new one."

"Dude, you know I got a C in Calculus." Henry crossed his arms and puffed some long brown hair from his face. Dean shrugged in agreement.

"I understand, James." Cas piped up, and Dean snorted a little, bit hid his smile in his hand.

James pressed his lips together. "We have to find the root of what event can be changed now in order to change the future, to stop Lucifer from having a successor. We should trace it back."

Henry yawned and stretched. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm damn tired from today. I say we look at this again tomorrow when we've got our batteries all recharged, okay?" He stood up and began making his way back to his couch. "Night, Uncle D. Night, Uncle Cassie." He called out, before dissappearing around the corner.

Cas had been contemplating all day about the situation. It simply didn't make sense that Henry's soul would be that corrupt already, if even at all. He'd peered into his mind; sure, he wasn't so happy with not having Gabriel in his life, but there wasn't much else. He should have been perfectly clean.

Cas hoped Henry was a heavy sleeper. A few hours later he padded out quietly to where him and James slept, and he sat next to his nephew and observed him, looking into his soul to see that small blackened area again. Henry looked peaceful as his chest rose and fell as he slept, and Cas screwed up his face in trying to understand. Something wasn't adding up.

He placed his hand on his shoulder and closed his eyes, trying to feel his grace in detail. He sensed the parts with Sam's characteristic glow, as well as Gabriel's. Then there were a few parts that were completely mixed, it was like trying to pick out the specific yellow and blue from green. It was then that he saw it, or rather, felt it. His breath caught in his throat in disbelief as he realized what he was picking out, but he didn't understand how, or even why.

There, within the purely innocent grace that was swirling serenely, was a little patch of light that didn't match up to the two that he was supposed to consist of. It was like mixing that same yellow and blue and somehow getting green with a small patch of red, it just wasn't possible. But where did the foriegn light come from? And who did it belong to? Cas delved even deeper, pushing hard on his shoulder to get just a little closer to his soul. Henry frowned and stirred a little in his sleep, and Cas gasped as he realized what it really was. There, sitting foreign amongst the rest of him, was a tiny little shard of grace that the only match was Lucifer.

He jumped slightly as a small voice spoke up behind him, and he turned to face James.

"What's wrong with him?" James asked, running a hand through his hair groggily. Cas didn't want to say what he'd seen aloud.

"I don't know." Cas answered after a small pause.

"Don't lie to me, dad." James sat up on the couch and rubbed his face. "There's something you guys aren't telling me. And this changing time because of Lucifer's son, it's bullshit."

Cas straightened up and sat next to James on the couch. He hesitated but put his hand on his knee.

"I didn't understand until just now. There's a small part of him that's...not right." Cas hesitated before continuing. "We told you that you need to prevent Lucifer's son from rising, I suppose you are correct in saying it is 'bull shit'. James, Henry... _is_  his successor."

"No, he's not." James shot out right away. "No. That's not possible."

"There is a small part of the devil's grace in him. I don't know how, or when, but I know it's there."

James covered his mouth with his hands and squeezed his eyes shut.

"He's been scary lately. And you've all been acting weird.." James looked scared as he reached out like a little kid, and Cas, somewhat confused, leaned slightly forward to have James bury his face in his clothes.

"What's going to happen to him?" He whispered, and Cas frowned.

"I'm sorry, James. I don't know."

"He's not a bad guy, dammit!" James gripped tightly to his clothes, and Cas awkwardly patted his back.

"..I believe you." Cas said quietly.

James' eyes glittered with unshed tears. "You said you don't know how it got there? Well, I don't care if he hates me. I'll ask him, and then we can fix this, right?"

Cas pressed his lips together. The piece had been extremely hard to detect, and it was already deeply infused into his own grace. There was no way to remove it without removing much of Henry himself.

"Maybe." Cas finally decided to answer. "Go to sleep, James." Cas hated seeing when his humans got puffy bags under tired eyes. He let Dean do the yelling at the two of them, but he was concerned that they'd been working so hard as well.

...

Henry woke up the next morning in a good mood. It was sunny and he'd actually slept in for once. And music was blaring from the old radio nearby, and he heard James humming and singing quietly along.  _James is okay. You were strong yesterday, and he didn't get hurt again. Whatever he says, what you did was great._  He smiled and stretched a little.

"Get up, we're going out for breakfast." James was tying on his shoes and then began making his makeshift couch-bed. Henry snorted and rolled onto his stomach.

"You fucking goody-two-shoes, making the damn bed." He chuckled again, and James gave him a rough shove that had him thump to the ground, gripping to the sheets that did nothing to break his fall.

"Get dressed. Now." James straightened up and went out of the room without another word.

"It makes me all tingly when you take charge like that," Henry joked, and he was met with a snort from the other room.

The tall young man chuckled and rolled over again, but gripped his chest as a flinch of pain shot up his chest. It wasn't leftover growing pains from his recent additions, that was certain. He scowled to himself as he pulled on a clean tee shirt that had been neatly folded and set in front of the couch, and it was pungent with Sam's scent. Henry chuckled a little at how sweet his dad was being, even though he'd been a little reserved for the whole thing, a little nervous.

Henry stopped mid-tug and winced before quickly rolling the rest of the shirt down. He easily felt his blade drop into his hand and he stared at it, watching the silver flash as he twisted it in the buttery morning light. It had been getting worse lately.

How James had been able to pull the strings to let the two of them go out to breakfast alone was anyone's guess. Henry wasn't surprised that James' cute little puns and little disgustingly sweet face didn't get him Impala driving rights, nothing would be  _that_  convincing. They bumbled down the road in a beaten up spare car, and finally found a little diner where they picked up some breakfast food.

"Let's go drive it somewhere nice to eat." James insisted strangely as Henry just got his food. Henry rolled his eyes a little, but upon seeing his cousin's pleading expression he caved. " _Fiinneee_. I don't know why you're acting like a little bitch on a valentine's date or something though." James barely even smiled.

Henry knew something was up when James began to be more nervous, he averted his eyes when Henry looked at him, and his body language began to show that he was feeling extremely uncomfortable.

Henry pulled over and killed the engine on the way back home, sighing and rolling his head to stare at James. "Okay, what the hell is going on. I haven't felt this awkward since I made eye contact with that woman buying a cucumber and  _Fifty Shades_."

James looked at him and quickly averted his eyes. "My dad told me something last night. Something..about you." He ran his hand through his black hair and hesitated to continue.

"What about me?" Henry felt a nervous rush of butterflies in his stomach.

"It was about all this stuff about Lucifer's son. You've got to know that was a lie." He mumbled, and suddenly looked very pale-faced, as the old clunker's door squealed as he stumbled out of the car.

Henry quickly did the same, rushing over to James' side of the car and holding him up by the shoulders as it looked like he was about to faint. "Jamie? What's wrong?"

"You're...you should know what I'm talking about! Cas told me last night that he found something, that you're the Lucifer's son!" James blurted, and felt a wall of guilt as it escaped his lips, and his hands flew to his mouth. " _Shit_. Shit, Henry, I-"

His cousin had quickly turned to face away from him, the long brown hair falling into his face masking his features from this angle. James didn't know what to even say to apologize as the silence stretched even farther. Finally, the tall man took a few steps, slowly rotating to face his cousin. His eyes were downcast, and his lips in a small frown.

"James-I know." He said quietly, his voice cracking just a little in the end. He looked like he wanted to say something more, but he bit his lips together instead, tears shining in his eyes. James was speechless as he searched his face. Was this some kind of cruel joke? What did he mean  _he knew_?!

_The stranger approached the very distraught four-year-old Henry, who had a pouty frown on his face and crusty tear trails down his cheeks. He was just watching as the man came closer, swinging his little legs on the chair much too high for him, and the man in a suit and tie approached him._

_"Hello there, Henry." The suited man said in a sickeningly sweet voice, bumping up the steps and sitting next to the little kid. Henry looked up at him with a scowl. "Who are YOU?" Henry demanded in a rude little way, crossing his arms. He winced slightly again as he heard something crash from inside, and a piercing scream of pain, and a muffled voice rapidly firing off words, Dean's voice._

_"I'm one of the angels. Your Uncle." The stranger said, using again that sugar-coated razorblades kind of voice again. "I understand that your other uncles are having a hard time. That your little cousin might never arrive."_

_Henry was told to leave, but he wasn't stupid. He knew what was going on inside, it had been going on for hours. Cas was dying, and his baby cousin was dying. He heard phrases he didn't understand, like "result from the Leviathans" and "difficulty with a scarred grace." He didn't like these words, they sounded scary, and the screaming and breaking of things wasn't making him feel any better._

_Henry's eyebrows drew together and fresh tears sprung to his wide eyes. "Why do you say arrive? You mean he's dying." The little kid stated bluntly, a tear dripping down his face. "I heard Uncle D talking. He said he's gon die." More tears began to flow down his face as it began to turn redder and little whines began forcing up his throat. "I don't want him to die." He whined, hiding his head in his hands as his little shoulders shook._

_Suddenly, his little chin was tipped up by the mysterious suited man. "What if I told you I could save him? That I could save him and your Uncle?"_

"What the hell are you talking about,  _you know_?" James demanded, feeling panic surge up in his chest. "What the fuck are you trying to say to me?"

Henry kept his eyes downcast and he sighed. "All I knew is that there was a way. No, dammit, it was the  _only_  way." James had tears shining in his eyes as he shoved his fist into Henry's clothes and twisted. "You tell me what's going on right now." He said through gritted teeth. "Now, dammit!"

_"You want to save your little couzie? And your Uncle too?" Henry nodded desparately, wringing his tiny hands on his lap. The man smiled and patted his back. "You just have to do one, silly, easy little thing first." Henry looked like he was trying to weigh his options. "Would it hurt?" He asked timidly, and the man smiled and shook his head._

_"Well, what bout how long I have to do it for?" The man in the suit and tie smiled again. "Nothing will happen to you for a long, long time. How old are you now?" Henry shyly held up four little fingers. "Well, imagine being four many, many times over. That's how long that nothing with happen."_

_Henry wasn't very good at math, but he knew that was a long time. He closed his eyes and nodded. "Okay. Okay, Uncle."_

"I did it for you, James." Henry spoke up vaguely. "Hell, I didn't know what the fuck I was getting myself into. I was  _four_ , for Gramp's sake." James began to connect the dots. When Henry was four was when he was born. And if deals were for miracles...and Cas had told him that his survival at birth was a miracle...

James instantly got a rush of goosebumps down his spine. "You didn't. Henry, you  _didn't_." Henry was silent, and he nodded just slightly.

_"Give your Uncle a little kiss, Henry. You love your little couzie, don't you?"_

"It wasn't ten years or anything. I let him just give me the tiniest piece..in exchange for you and Cas, and...I didn't care for a long time. You were okay.  _We_  were okay. I finally had a cousin, a friend, a brother, and that felt like the best thing in the world."

He finally lifted his eyes and looked James dead in the eyes. "You don't think I know my own  _soul_?" He laughed painfully, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. "All my hatred, all my anger, any negative emotion goes straight to that part inside me. And I knew that it was growing, that I was turning. That this all started a few years ago."

James let go of his shirt and stumbled backwards, disbelief on his face. "Tell me this isn't true. Please. This isn't true."

_"See, sweetheart? That wasn't so bad." Lucifer said sweetly as Henry looked down at his chest and patted it, the foreign patch of grace that had been grafted into his. "It feels funny." He said quietly, his voice almost getting drowned out by the sound of a wailing baby from inside._

_"It won't feel like that for so long. You'll like it after a little while." Henry smiled a little and looked up into the man's false smile. "Thanks!" He said cheerfully, beaming and hopping off the chair and beaming up at the strange man. "I'm going to go meet my cousin now."_

"When was I supposed to tell you? How?" Henry insisted as James gripped his hair tightly and was breathing heavily, refusing to believe what Henry was saying was true. He let himself be corrupted, he'd exchanged it for James' life...Henry went quiet for a little while, and James refused to speak up either.  _  
_

"James, I don't regret what I did. I love you." Henry spoke up in a quiet voice. A clear, fat tear rolled down his face as he told him. And he was not one to say the L-word. James couldn't bring himself to speak as he choked out sobs. Henry continued.

"I knew that it wouldn't get bad before I had led a normal human life span. And if it did get bad... _when_  it did get bad..." He thought about when he'd stared at his blade that morning when he'd felt the twinges again. He knew he would have the strength to do it.

"You were going to kill yourself? Is that it?" James spat out. "No. I'd rather die than let this play out, Henry." There was another silence and James dropped to his knees, curling into a small ball and sobbing with tiny hiccups. Henry dropped down next to him, extending his long legs and wrapping his arms around his shoulders. "It's okay. James, it's  _okay_. I don't mind."

James looked up at him with tear-stained eyes. "We are here for a reason. That's what everyone has been telling me. So we are going to change this." He insisted, and Henry, in a rare gesture of vulnerability, dropped his head to James' shoulder, his cheek pressed and his eyes closed.

"I sure hope so." And as if on cue, the damn thing shot out a twinge once again.


	11. Chapter 11

Henry sighed in irritation as he sat on the hood of the car, just watching his cousin. James was sitting in the nearby feild, the wildflowers were dipping and bowing and brushing his legs as he stared at the ground, a vacant stare, as if he were looking through everything as he absent-mindedly fiddled with the stem of a wildflower. A breeze raked through his hair, and he set the plant down with a little sigh, he brought his knees to his chest and hugged them. He wasn't taking the news so well.

Henry conjured a lollipop from thin air and began to suck on it, and frowned a little when he heard his phone begin to jingle. Or rather, the phone he'd jacked this morning, seeing that his cell phone didn't work on this old-school service. The contact said "Samuel Smith-FBI". It must have been in case the phone rang while they were working. This must have been Dean's.

"Yeah?" He answered, not taking his eyes off of James as his cousin slid his hands over his face and combed through his dark locks, still not looking in Henry's direction.

"Hi, Henry." Sam said softly, sweetly. Henry smiled a little; his dad was such a big softie, and he still seemed a little reserved with him. Hell, if he'd had a kid come out of nowhere claiming he wasn't exactly human, he'd be pretty weirded out too."Are you two doing alright?"

Henry chuckled as he heard Dean in the background grumble something that sounded like 'I don't care, I'm going to whoop some ass when they get back here'.

"We're okay. Just heading home." He pulled the lollipop from his mouth and looked at James again. "We're just..um...talking things out."

There was a soft sigh on the other line. Henry observed James for a little longer as he buried his face in his hands. "...Henry?" Sam asked, extremely quietly. "...I promise I'll love you no matter what, okay?"

Henry screwed up his face, and he felt his stomach go in a small knot. "I..uh, sure, pops. Why are you saying this to me?"

Silence.

Finally, Sam was the one who spoke up again, and he was speaking in barely a whisper. "Please just come home soon, okay?"

"Okay." Henry closed the phone and ran a hand through his hair as he sighed and finally decided to walk up to James, as his footsteps crunched down the slight dip as he began walking through the mostly bare field out to James.

His cousin's head turned to the direction of the noise, a little startled, but then he avoided Henry's eyes again.

"C'mon, couzie. Our dads are getting worried about us." Henry said, hating that his cousin had to have found out this way. He didn't want him to find out at all.

James rested his chin on top of his knees and closed his eyes. "I'm not ready to leave. Because if I leave, and we start talking about this..it's going to become real." His voice began to shake at the end as he lifted his eyes finally and glared at Henry. "Why? Why did you do this for me, Henry?"

"Don't get mad at  _me_  for saving your life, James." Henry clenched his hands into fists.

"Well, I  _am_  mad at you." James shot back quickly. "Sure, you saved my life, but you ruined yours, okay?"

Henry sat down next to James, he extended his legs and leaned back onto his arms as he let out a sigh at looked upwards. "I didn't ruin my damn life, James. It's going to be as long as a regular human's, okay? And that's perfectly fine with me."

"But we're  _not_  human!" James insisted, tears springing to his eyes this time. "We're supposed to be immortal, and..what am I supposed to do without you?" He suddenly sounded like he was five years old again and had just gotten a scrape on the knee. "When you've killed yourself?"

"Dean's not going to live forever. My dad's not going to live forever." Henry pointed out irritably. He'd accepted that he'd needed to do this a long time ago, and now it felt like James was undoing all that mental preparation, making doubts creep up once again that he' worked for a long time to supress.

 _"They'll be in heaven!_ And you'll be, just, gone! Can't you see that?!" Tears were freely shimmering on his reddening face.

"Stop blubbering. You'll find some girl; angel, nephil, human, I don't know what she'll be and I don't care, and you're going to fall in love. And you won't need me there with you anymore. You're allowed to forget me, James." James looked up with immeasureable hurt in his eyes, about to say something, when Henry interrupted him again.

"Why do you think I'm so carefree and such an ass? I know my days are numbered, and I'm making the most of them. I've accepted this a long time ago, Jimmy _. I don't care._ "

"I don't want you to leave me." James said in the quietest of voices, and he buried his face in his hands as his body began to shake with sobs. He leaned into Henry's chest, and Henry automatically wrapped an arm around him.

"Hey, I'm not leaving for a while yet. And you'll have couzie Kate, and hell, maybe my dads will pop out a few other kids when he's finally done working. Like a mini baby-boom, right? Gabe home from war?" He was attempting to make James laugh, but so far he'd been quiet as a mute. "You'll be surrounded by dozens of little assholes like me. And you could be the older brother, right? Isn't that something nice?"

James sobbed and Henry gripped him a little tighter.

"But you're smart and funny and tough as hell...and I don't want to forget you!" James whimpered and buried his face in his clothes.

"Aw, c'mon. You'll ruin my jacket with all this water, crybaby." Henry said quietly. "You really think I'm tough as hell?" He chuckled.

"You grew a damn  _face_  for your first addition and you're still kicking." James pointed out, smiling a little bit out of admiration.

"Well, that wasn't the worst thing I've done. Did I tell you about that one time that someone gave me an indian burn on the playground? Aw,  _that_  was brutal."

"I fuckin' hate you, you assfuck." James managed to choke out, mad that he'd made him laugh just a little, and Henry dipped his head a little and planted a kiss on his dark head of hair.

"Meh," Henry replied, smiling just a little. "I hate you too, buddy."

...

The car ride back was awkward to say the least. James almost seemed to be shrinking away into the car door, and Henry kept his eyes on the road as he felt the silence pressing onto him almost as if it were tangible. Henry wanted to speak up, as well as James, but both of them had no idea where to start.

"So-" Henry started, clearing his throat.

"Yeah." James answered quickly, and Henry finally felt the ice break and he snorted back a laugh. Since when had they been like this?

"Henry, this isn't funny." James shot back moodily, keeping his eyes looking out the window. "I can't believe that you would plan to just-"

Henry gripped the steering wheel even tighter, as well as locking his jaw. He'd accepted his fate a long time ago, and now James was reopening those wounds and just prodding around in them.

And once again, a cold ice froze over the car and they didn't speak for the whole car ride home. It was finally when Henry shut off the car and a stuffy silence from the absence of the engine's rumble filled the car, when one of them spoke up again. Henry had pulled the handle and was about to wrench open the old, squeaky door when James spoke up again.

"Henry?" James spoke up quietly, his arms wrapping around his torso as if he were hugging himself.

"I..I wanted to thank you. For doing that for me, even if it made us get into this huge mess."

Henry's lips tugged upward just a little bit as he heard James say the word "us". Maybe he wouldn't have to do this by himself, he wouldn't have to keep this dark secret any longer or hide it when he got those painful twinges around the graft.

Henry smiled just a little as he remembered when James had been so tiny, and when he'd felt so proud that he'd been the sole purpose for him being okay. He remembered feeling such a sense of purpose as he'd stepped inside the bedroom where Dean was holding his new baby cousin.

Dean had the black-haired baby tucked securely into his chest, and he was quiet as he kept his head bowed. Cas was on the bed, only a tuft of black hair and a limp hand was seen as he lay underneath the covers.

"Cas!" Henry gasped, feeling terrified as he saw him underneath that cover like a dead person. "What happen?" He whined, coming up to the side of the bed and trying to get a better view of his uncle. He felt betrayed as he weighed the option of that suited man cheating him. "Is he o.k.? He died?"

He looked up with teary eyes as Dean put a hand on Henry's small head, the small boy sniffled and dragged his hand across his nose, leaving a little shiny trail of snot.

"Henry, he's only resting. He's okay." Dean answered in a quiet, yet joyful voice.

"I want to see my brother." Henry said determinedly, narrowing his eyes. He needed to see the reason for that uncomfortable feeling he had in his chest.

"Henry, this is your cousin, James." Dean corrected him, but lowered the little baby so that Henry could see.

His eyes were closed and puffy around them, and his hair was dark and wispy, and bald patches of his head could be seen underneath the soft hairs. His nose was tiny, as well as his chubby arms and little fingers, and as Henry touched his arm tentatively. "He looks silly. And tiny."

Dean chuckled. "You won't say that for long." (Henry smiled again he was walking back to the Men of Letters HQ. He still did say that.)

"Brother." Henry insisted, maybe a little too loudly, crossing his arms. Dean made a motion for him to lower his voice as Cas stirred slightly.

"He just might be his brother, Dean. They've half-angels, and half-brothers." Sam said from the doorway, where he was leaning and observing the scene. "Henry, come here."

The boy quickly pattered over and threw his arms around Sam's shins. He could tell that his dad was feeling pretty sad as he saw that James had two of his parents with him. "Don't be sad, papa. I helped them." He beamed up at Sam, who lifted the boy up from under his armpits and held him on his hip. "Good job, Henry. Thank you for waiting outside." Henry hadn't bothered to correct him.

"I didn't expect you to thank me so soon." Henry voiced as the two stood side-by-side outside, waiting for the door or open.

James rolled his eyes, and rolled back a little on his heels, rocking slightly back and forth. "Yeah, well, you're still a stupid son of a bitch."

Henry didn't know what he would have done without this little punk in his life.


	12. Chapter 12

Henry crossed his arms as he had four pairs of eyes on him as he sat at the head of the table, but it felt like he was under a microscope. "Why the hell are you all looking at me like this?" He shot out moodily.

Dean frowned. "As your Uncle who's been through it, isn't it kinda my obligation to tell you to _not_ make deals?" Dean crossed his arms as well.

"What would you have done, Uncle D? I was only four. I hardly knew what I was doing." Henry replied as he pressed his lips together.

"So, Cas?" Henry asked, and the dark-haired angel perked up from being deep in thought.

"Yes?"

"So, you said you could...sense it, right?" Henry asked, lowering his voice a little.

"Yes. It required much concentration." Cas replied. "A sort of shard, deeply melded with your soul."

"Is there any way...we can remove it?" Sam asked nervously, he ran his hand through his hair.

"I don't believe so." Castiel tried to break it to him lightly. "Angel grace is not easily messed with. If we tried to carve it out, he could die."

Dean suddenly perked up. "Wait a minute. If he has a piece of grace in him, does that mean he's like..." He couldn't bring himself to say the word, instead he just motioned a hump over his stomach.

Henry scowled and stood up, roughly pushing the chair behind him with a loud scraping noise. "No, Dean, I am not pregnant with the goddamn anti-christ!" He spat irritably. "This is absolutely ridiculous. I'm out."

He stood up roughly and began storming from the room, not wanting to even be in the same room of any of his family members right now. He felt his wrist gently grabbed, and he looked back at Sam's concerned face.

"Please. Henry, I know you're angry, but I promise we're only trying to help." Sam pleaded. "If you want, I can have Dean leave."

_"Hey!"_

Henry looked like he was considering it as he still made no move to sit back down.

"Dad, I just..don't want to talk about this right now. I've already made James really upset, I just want to take a break right now. Please."

Sam nodded, standing up and wordlessly wrapping his arms aroud his shoulders, he was only a few inches taller than him. "Okay. If you want to talk to just me about it later.."

Henry rested his head on his shoulder, and he nodded. "Okay." He said quietly. "That sounds nice."

"C'mon, James." He said once they'd pulled away, striding from the room. James quickly stood up from his chair and trailed Henry out of the room like a puppy. "Henry, wait!"

The members of Team Free Will all stared at each other, all not quite sure what to do with this turn of events.

"Well, that didn't go as well as expected." Cas broke the silence.

"Um, yeah, no shit Cas." Dean said back, but his eyes widened when he noticed Sam had folded his arms and now was resting his head on his arms.

"Sammy? Are you okay?" Sam straightened up, running his hands down his face as he sighed.

"No, Dean, I'm not okay." He answered, rubbing his eyes. "You know how much I've always wanted kids."

Dean frowned a little. "I know, Sammy." He said quietly.

"And no dad wants their kids in this much trouble, okay? I'm so..I'm just so damn worried about him." He admitted, covering his eyes with his palm.

"Sam-" Dean started, as Cas stared with squinted eyes.

"I need some time to think, okay?" Sam stood up too, avoiding their gazes. "Maybe I'll talk to..my son tonight." He walked from the room, and Dean and Cas were left alone, as the angel stared Dean down and made him feel extremely uncomfortable.

"James is very upset. Maybe we should..talk with our son tonight as well." He said quietly. Dean thought about saying something rude again, that he was still uncomfortable with all this, that he was still angry about Cas's choice, but instead he chose to ignore all that.

"Yeah." He cleared his thought and spoke up. "Yeah. I think we should." He was shy and tentative in his moments, but he reached next to him and put his arm over his shoulder, slowly pulling him closer into a side-hug as Castiel rested his head on his shoulder.

"We're gonna figure this out, Cas. It's gonna be okay." Dean said, rubbing his shoulder a little.

"Henry?" James asked, he was sitting criss-cross on the bed, holding his ankles in his hands. Henry sat with his back to the headboard, his eyes were closed as he had his legs stretched out in front of him, concentrating.

"Shhh. Jimmy, I'm trying to scan for that demon right now. Don't break my concentration or I'll have to start all over." He said back in a sigh.

"That demon is the least of our problems right now!" James shot back, and Henry's blue-green eyes opened just a little, and he frowned.

"Don't make me regret letting you in here." He said quietly. "Right now, you're the only family I can stand."

James frowned a little, scooted over, and hugged him softly. "Sorry." He mumbled. "But if you don't make the deal, I'll-"

Henry sighed in irritation. "You'd cease to exist, or be dead before you were even born. Yada yada, okay, I just want things to go back to normal." He emphasized. "Stop, you know, having everyone friggin' pitying me."

"What if we found another way?" James completely ignored his request.

"Maybe." Henry finally answered, letting his eyes slip closed. He concentrated on searching for the demon, traveling mentally over a radius, scanning for the reason they'd came.

"Oh my god-Henry!" James suddenly shrieked, and Henry's broad shoulders were suddenly roughly shaken as James gripped him and roughly shook him, his eyes sprung open.

"Jimmy, what?" He asked, confused by the sudden danger spilling from his dark blue eyes, his eyebrows high with shock.

"Jesus-look!" He tore his hand from Henry's shoulder and waggled the fingers in front of his cousin's face. His fingertips were completely transparent, and the skin faded down to the solid skin-color, returning to normal at the second joint.

"Ahhh!" Henry gripped his cousin's hand, bringing it right up to his nose and examining it up close. James tore it away and hugged it to his chest, his eyes wide and wild with fear as his chest rose and fell in bursts. Henry looked at his own hands.

"Holy shit!" He screamed out, seeing that his own hands had that ghostly, transparent fingers.

"Dude!" James yelled, gripping his cousin's shoulders tight. Henry was freaking out just as much as he was.

"James, man! What the fuck are we supposed to do?" Henry yelled back, they reached out and grasped their disappearing hands together.

"Why are you asking me?" James shot back, panicking.

"Henry?" Sam asked softly, opening the bedroom door.

 _"AHHHHHHHHHH!"_ The two boys screamed, not expecting anyone to be outside, gripping tightly to each other and screaming their heads of like two little girls after a horror movie.


	13. Chapter 13

Dean was pacing back and forth, worried out of his mind. Life seemed to do that little thing where it dangled a carrot in front of his nose only to rip it away seconds before he could reach it.

James was his son. And now he was disappearing.

Sam and Henry where finally looking more affectionate than normal, they were sitting together with Sam's arm draped over Henry's shoulder, as the kid had his eyes closed and their heads were leaning together, matching dark brown hair pressed together.

Sam was moving his lips but no sound was coming out, and it wasn't very hard for Dean to tell he was praying. James was sitting next to Cas, looking up guiltily at Dean as he paced, his dark blue eyes tracing and following him as he went back and forth.

"I don't know where we went wrong. I don't know what we changed to have this...this happen." James said hoarsely under his breath, blinking heavily and looking into Cas's face.

"This is one of his greatest fears, changing things." Cas voiced to Dean, concern hardening his features. "It has been for a long time."

"Well, how the fuck do I fix this?" Dean gripping his hair tight under his palms. "I want my son, and I want my nephew, goddammit!"

He squeezed his eyes shut, angry with himself. Why was this happening? He suddenly got an idea. It had to work, right?

"Cas, stand up." Dean said quickly, his features still grim. The angel glanced at James before slowly standing up. His features were stony and his fists were loosely clenched, he was avoiding Dean's eyes.

"I am going to say that I am willing to do anything as long as I am able to save my-umff!" His little speech was interrupted as Dean smushed his lips against his, his eyes shut tight as he'd surged forward and wrapped his arms around his midsection.

Cas was taken aback, his eyes flying wide before finally fluttering closed, his unsure arms clumsily wrapping back around Dean as he was tilted slightly back by the force of the kiss.

And then, he kissed back. Cas kissed like he'd been desperate for it for a long time, open-mouthed, hard pressure against Dean's, all tongue and teeth. One of his hands slid up from where it was pressed to his shoulder blades and knotted in Dean's hair instead, small golden-brown tufts sticking up from the cracks in his fingers as he pulled Dean closer, Dean keeping their bodies flush together by his hands on the angel's waist.

"Hey, Jimmy? What's going on over there?" Henry pointed to the two of them, and James turned to look.

"Oh my God, _gross_!" James turned away and shielded his eyes.  _"Henry, what the hell!"_

Dean finally pulled away, his eyes lowered so his eyelashes fluttered just above his freckled cheeks. Both were a little breathless, huffing and breathing shared air as they tried to catch their breaths as their shiny lips remained just inches from each other.

Cas raised his eyes to Dean's, panting softly from his slightly parted lips and lightly holding onto his lapels. Dean's lips stretched into a benign smile and he softly bumped his forehead to Cas's. 

"I've, uh, been waitin' a long time to do that." Dean ended with a hushed chuckle. 

"Your parents are gross." Henry nudged James. 

"Just tell me when it's over." 

Dean pressed his cheek to Cas's, whispering into his ear only. "I'm sorry I got into a fight with you. I never expected to see someone like James, but I'm glad I did. I was so wrong, Cas. I was just jealous at my future self for having you, as stupid as that sounds." He ran his hand up his coarse hairs on the back of his neck.

"Your firstborn, he belongs to me. I love you, and I have for a long time. I was scared to admit that, but dammit, not anymore." Dean was extremely surprised when he felt another kiss press softly and sweetly back to his own lips.

He blinked his jade eyes in surpise and waited for the angel to speak, but instead he was completely silent as he just kept his head tucked tightly to Dean's chest, hugging quietly like a little kid would. Dean smiled and felt his heart warm up a little as he rubbed his back and looked up to James.

"Did that help?" He asked, letting out a husky little laugh as he was squeezed tighter by Cas. James looked at his semi-transparent fingers, wiggled them just to be sure, and shook his head.

"Sorry, dad." Dean frowned a little and dipped his head, wrapping his arms tightly around Cas's back. "Well, It was worth a try." 

* * *

 

Dean waited with Cas and James, waiting for Sam to get out of his room so he could talk with him. James was curled up as Cas pressed a floppy pink hot water bag to his head, he was grimacing as Cas pushed his damp hair out of his face. Cas had told him that this was the very end of aquiring his new additions, the last little bit of pain before his antlers would become a permanent fixture in his true form. Dean was only further reminded that he was really only a baby in angel-years. And no one should have to die as a child.

Finally there was the soft sound of a door being pulled shut, and Dean quickly got up, meeting Sam's worried eyes. "Sammy," He said gruffly. "We need to talk."

He ran a hand through his long brown hair. "I know, Dean. I-"

"We have to find out what changed." Dean interrupted him, and Sam spoke up again, irritated.

"Dean, don't you get it? I have..I have a son now. And I mean, that's really..." He laughed painfully. "I don't get many things that go right in my life. You know that better than anyone, dammit."

Dean frowned. "Yeah, I know."

Sam hid his eyes with his palm. "I haven't even talked to Gabe about this yet. Well, current Gabe." He met Dean's eyes and sighed.

"You just want your own angel here too." Dean voiced for him. Sam bit his lips together and after a second he nodded.

"Yeah," Sam said hoarsely. "Yeah, I do."

"Have you tried praying to him?" Dean asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"What do you _think_ , Dean?" Sam shot back.

Dean shut his eyes. God, this was going to be really fucking embarrassing explaining how he secretly prayed to Cas. Well, he'd just kissed him anyway in front of everyone, so he might as well try to help his brother out.

"Try..." Dean started, clearing his throat. "Try praying  _to_  him, you know, not at him. Act like he's already right in front of you instead of far away in some unknown place in heaven. Show them..." Dean blushed when he said aloud the phrase he visualized each time he really connected with Cas. "I always think to myself..'show them your bleeding heart.'"

Sam finally smirked a little. "You really think that every time?" He teased.

Dean flushed redder and got defensive. "Not every time, I just...uh...when I try it like that, that's when he hears me the best, I think."

Sam still was smiling. "Okay then." His pesky little-brother eyes were boring into Dean. There was an awkward silence.

" _What?_ "

"Dude, I didn't need time-traveling nephilim to come back for me to know you to have a thing for Cas." Sam smirked annoyingly, that kind of younger-sibling smirk that would usually end in a mother prying two shrieking children apart.

"Shuddup." Dean muttered and waved away the comment, stalking away. "Just try it."

Sam sat on the bed where Henry was sleeping, his big hands a little jittery before he clasped them together and let out an anxious little sigh. He licked his lips and started.

"Hey Gabe." He started out, the ghost of a smile on his face as he let out a 'hmmf' at how stupid he was probably going to sound.

"I'm, uh, praying to you, not at you, okay?" Sam squeezed his hands together. "Look- I don't know what the hell I'm supposed to do. Dean and Cas's son and our-" He broke himself off. "And, uh, his cousin came back here. And now they're just...disappearing. I want them to be okay, godammit, I know I've only known them for a few weeks but-"

He swallowed back his watery voice and looked up to the ceiling desperately, blinking. Henry stirred behind him, rustling the sheets. "Look." Sam said gruffly. "We have a son named Henry, who came here from the future. And I need him in my life. Sure he's a cocky little shit, but _god_ , I need him. Please-"

"Hi Sam."

Gabriel appeared standing in front of him, wearing a green jacket and rumpled jeans, his hands shoved deep in his denim pockets. He was still smirking, and he seemed very different than the future Gabe who'd came back to watch over Henry after the accident.

Sam let out a sigh of relief and ran a hand through his hair. "Thanks for showing up."

"To be honest, I didn't hear you until just now." Gabriel shrugged his shoulders. "Who taught you how to _actually_ pray?"

"Dean," Sam finally laughed a little. Gabe being here was actually helping him calm down.

"I'm sure he did." Gabriel chuckled and lowered his eyes. Then he saw Henry.

"Father," Gabriel breathed, his eyes finally softening. "This is him?" He was quiet as he went up to the bed to observe him. Henry's sleeping face appeared very innocent. 

"I guess you're wondering-" Sam started, but was interrupted as Gabriel slowly reached out an arm and brushed his fingers on Henry's shouder.

"I already know how it's possible. Children of Light aren't something I've done yet, however." Gabriel frowned a little. "How...old did you say he was?"

"Twenty-three." Sam knit his eyebrows together. "Why..?"

"Just looking at him, he looks at _least_ a hundred thousand years old. This doesn't make any sense." The archangel's face then fell in realization. "He _didn't-_ "

"There was an accident." Sam admitted. "He came back here with James, and when James got hurt he... I don't understand it as much as Cas, but something got triggered."

"Father, really?" Gabriel looked unhappy. Aging all at once like that was one of the worse experiences in the angel world. "Poor kid."

He gently took Henry's partly invisible hand laying there and examined it. "Jesus, he's giant." Gabriel chuckled. "Look at these hands."

Sam blushed.

"I know exactly what this is." Gabriel announced, much to Sam's relief.

"Why couldn't Cas figure it out?" Sam asked, wondering why in the hell he was  _smiling_  at Henry's transparent fingertips.

"Cas is the baby of the family, Sammy. He really overestimates what he knows." Gabriel held up Henry's large hand with the ghosty fingertips. "This is looking a hell of a lot like a case of alternate dimension-icitis."

"Alternate-  _what_?" Sam shot out.

"These two aren't exactly from this timeline anymore, Sam. Let me guess, misfortunes by the truckload? Coming here to change things?"

Sam pressed his lips together. "They said they came here to hunt down a demon. But yeah, Gabe, Henry was really broken up about you leaving him."

Gabriel's face uncharacteristically fell, his hazel eyes twinkling sadly. "...What do you mean I left him?" His voice had lowered to just above a whisper.

"He told me that I was the only father he had. That you left before he could even remember." Sam replied.

Gabe frowned and clasped Henry's heavy hand with two of his. "Well, shit. Sam, I would never just abandon you two. Not if I could help it."

Sam felt his heart squeeze in his chest. He didn't get a chance to speak up, however.

"We don't know why their timeline is suddenly obsolete and what the new one will look like. See how he's not really gone yet? Neither is the timeline he's from." Gabriel started to explain.

"It's complicated. But say if I were to travel into the future, it would still be this one, the one he's from. Reality hasn't made the shift to the new line yet. Once they disappear completely, that's when time-traveling forward could bring us to the new future. Until then, to get to what's forming now we'd have to dimension-hop. Get it?" Gabriel was holding Henry's hand up to his chest. It really was big in comparison.

Sam swallowed back a nervous lump. "So, we don't know if the new future ends up better or worse?"

Gabriel frowned. "Yup. There's really no way to tell yet. All we can tell is it's changing."

"But what about my Henry?" Sam asked, and Gabriel finally grinned.

"He's not really disappearing, Sam. Where there's birth there's always birth." Gabriel reached out and brushed some hair off of Henry's forehead. "Wow, he's gorgeous."

Sam felt his cheeks burning. "Yeah." That was all he managed to say, and immediately felt like a dumbass after the word had left his mouth.

"Sam, I like you. I have ever since you were little, if that's creepy enough for you." Gabriel joked, and Sam let out a nervous puff of laughter.

"Look, I don't know what the hell I'm doing. Just because I'm an archangel doesn't mean I know everything. Dammit, I was flirting with you by killing your brother over and over again and smashing you in the nuts."

Sam couldn't help but let out a pent-up laugh. "Yeah, Gabe, that was..uh, probably not the best thing to do."

Gabriel laughed too. "Yeah, in hindsight maybe not. I was just trying to help you, though. Playing around a little to try and teach you a lesson, to try and demonstrate what you should do against my dick brothers."

"You really were helping me, huh?" Sam finally realized. "Trying to help me and my brother through the apocalypse."

Gabriel nodded. "And I was too much of a coward to come back after he'd 'killed' me. I didn't know if.." He turned his eyes to look at sleeping Henry again instead. He brushed his hair from his face again. "Well, I guess this answers my question, huh?"

Sam was burning by now. "You said we didn't have sex for him." He blurted.

Gabriel laughed. "Honey, I know how the soul-mixing process works." He lifted an eyebrow. "Doesn't mean we don't." He winked.

Sam sputtered.

"That'll never get old." Gabriel smiled and was attempting to wake the sleeping giant instead. "Wake up, Henry. C'mon, sleepyhead."

Henry groaned and rolled to the side, stuffing his pillow over his ears. "I'm tired." He whined. "Ripping out demon souls is exhauing as fuck."

"You're a pottymouth, then. Wow, I'm proud."

Henry ripped the pillow from his head and shot up straight. "Dad." He was looking at Gabriel with a critical eye. "Younger dad, I'm guessing."

"Brainy, too. That's what I like in your father."

Sam covered his face.

Gabriel took Henry's hand in two of his. "Now tell me  _exactly_  what you said when this hand-thing happened."

Henry bit his lips together and averted his blue-green eyes. "Me and James were talking. He...if you can't tell like Cas could..I.." He didn't want to explain himself again.

"I see that damn piece of my brother in you, if that's what you mean." Gabriel was fuming. "Why I  _ever_  let him even come near you.."

"I did it to save James and Uncle Cas's life. Cas was dying when James was born, so I..." Henry cleared his throat. "-Anyway. James asked if maybe there was another way. So I said 'maybe' and then we could suddenly see through our fuckin' hands."

Gabriel looked like he was thinking. "What caused Cas to have such a difficult time? With James?"

Henry puffed out a breath of air. "Don't remember exactly. Something about scars and Leviathans."

Gabriel's lips pressed to a line. "Oh, Cassie. What the hell am I going to do with you?" Gabriel sounded angry.

"What does he mean by that?" Sam asked, slipping up next to Henry. "What scars?"

"When little bro Cassie took in all those souls from Purgatory, then got rid of them again- it ripped up his grace like he'd given birth a million times in the same second. Scars are always more thick and just  _worse_  than the original shape. No wonder he had a hard time with James." Gabriel shook his head. "Cas..why the hell you'd get yourself involved with Purgatory.."

Sam brought his eyebrows togther. "Is there a cure for that, then? These scars he has?"

"'fraid not, Sammy." Gabriel frowned. " I'm still trying to wrap my head around how Lucifer saved the two of them."

"You're an archangel, right? Can't you do the same things he can?" Sam asked. "If we find another way to save Cas during labor, then this whole snowball of  _bad_ wouldn't form in the first place." Sam was trying to brainstorm, but he was coming up with nothing.

"Not true." Henry spoke up. "Gabriel left us when I was one, remember?"

"Why?" Gabriel asked softly. "Just tell me why, sweetheart." He held his son's hand up to his chest.

Gabriel was much sweeter than Sam would have thought. However, it didn't seem to surprise Henry. Sam felt a tiny little pang of happiness. Maybe he had made a good choice. 

"You said God made you leave. That you had to go off and fight the big bads with Michael." Sam spoke up instead. His face fell. "I saw you, the one from the future. You looked so different, like you were just  _tired_."

Gabriel frowned. "That sounds like it sucks." He snapped and a look of realization fell on his face.

"Oh, that's it! Why I didn't see it before- wow, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed." Gabriel shook his head and laughed. "I know how to fix everything. And I'm not going to leave you two this time around. I promise."

He clapped his hands on Sam's shoulders, and their eyes met. "Trust me, Sammy." He pulled forward and gave him a soft kiss on the lips.

"Ew." Henry laughed.

Sam blared bright red.

"I won't see you until God comes back in two years. But I'm sure we'll be ready to get cooking by then, huh?" Gabriel winked.

"But where are you going?" Sam asked, bewildered. "How?"

"I'm finding my brother Raphael. And he's going to take my place. Then, I'll be there to save Cas and his little nephilim." He motioned to Henry. "You'll know if what I'm doing is working when he starts disappearing. Think of him as your living, breathing litmus test for my progress."

Henry crossed his arms. "Oh, great." He said dryly.

"You'll still exist. Just not  _this_  you." Gabriel tried to explain.

"Not helping." Henry squeezed his arms together nervously. His shard throbbed hard in his chest.

"I promise I would never hurt you. You have to trust me, sweetheart." Gabriel's words were sweet and Henry finally seemed to relax a little. "I love you and I'm going to help you."

Sam slung his arm over Henry's shoulder and looked up to Gabriel. "Good luck, Gabe."

The archangel smiled. "Bye, Sammy. Bye, Henry." And with a whooshing sound and a rustle of feathers, he was gone.

Sam hoped Gabriel was right. There wasn't much else he could do except trust him. Henry winced again as the shard pulsed again and he bit his lip.

Sam reached out and planted a hand on his chest in concern. "You never told me it hurts you." Sam said sadly. Henry didn't reply.

"I think you did the right thing. I'm  _proud_  of you, Henry." Sam smiled sadly.

And finally, the two of them wrapped into a huge bear hug, Sam kissing his hair and feeling tears gush from his eyes. He'd been cautious and reserved ever since Henry and his cousin had arrived. But this, feeling his son's broad shoulders under his arms as he squeezed, it was like he had missed someone he'd never met.

He'd been nervous about seeing Gabriel. But there was something about him that was so reassuring, that seemed to melt his nerves away. And that kiss had been entirely unexpected, but..he kind of liked it. The pure sweetness of it.

Sam smirked a little.  _Sweetness_. Him and the candyman, who would have guessed?

He held his only son tight for a long time, and prayed to God that Gabe was right.


	14. Chapter 14

_Henry POV_

Let me give you a few words of wisdom.

It sounds like a joke, alternate dimension-icitis. That's because that name is stupid and that part of it is a joke, I'll admit.

 _But it is not fucking funny,_ _**okay** _ _._

Let me tell you why.

Have you ever gone out in the snow and your fingers are numb and cold and it kinda feels like maybe your fingers are so numb that they don't really exist?

And then they fumble over shit like a teakettle.

Not like a pencil. A fucking teakettle.

(I do have big hands anyway, so I "gently bully" my cousin into making tea for me anyway)

Wait, I had a point here. Oh yeah.

Not existing isn't numb and painless like you'd imagine. It is  _cold_  as  _shit_.

James fumbled a little with the teakettle but managed to get it on the stove and managed to light the fire after a few unsuccessful attempts at turning the knobs ( _you_  try turning a damn knob with half your fingers gone) and resorted to telekinesis.

We were quiet as we waited for our tea to boil. I stared at my cousin and he looked back at me and we didn't want to talk about anything.

We couldn't sleep. Did I mention it was close to four in the morning?

My brother Fenris snored on the couch where he was sleeping, all messy black hair and tangled limbs, and the clock ticked softly on the wall. I reached out and layered my hand on top of James's which were folded on the table.

I could have said something profound and beautiful and so sickeningly sweet that my cousin (like the li'l bitch he was) would just burst into tears.

Instead, I cleared my throat. "The antlers are all grown in, I see. And they still look stupid as hell."

He gave me this kind of heartbroken half-smile, his eyebrows tipping upward in an expression one uses when they're trying hard not to cry. "Thanks." He said, smiling twistedly a little more.

Fenris's rumbling snore sounded once again. James was just  _staring_  at me like he was looking into my soul with those little dark blue orbs.

"Cas wasn't lying when he said this was your greatest fear, huh?" I said quietly, finally taking my hand from his and folding them together, shivering. The tips felt they like were being held under ice water, or maybe dunked in liquid nitrogen.

James shook his head, finally taking those eyes off of me and looking at the floor. I was a little relieved I wasn't under his stare anymore.

"What are we supposed to do now?" James asked in his cute little voice. Dammit, he could be like a toddler in a twenty-year-old's body sometimes.

The tea began to boil. James stood up to grab it.

"We could finish what we came here for." I suggested, in a voice much more grim than I had originally intended. James met my eyes as he was pouring the two cups and huffed out an irritated puff of air.

"I can't believe you sometimes." He pouted.

"Can't help it. I got a heart of gold." I knocked on my chest with my knuckles and grinned up at him. "C'mon. One last hurrah. It's not like anything  _else_  can happen to us."

James scowled as he stirred his tea. "Mammon can travel through time. She could be anytime."

"Nope. She's here, alright. Still at the all-you-can eat demon buffet." I kicked my feet up on the table and crossed my ankles, leaning back. "I feel like doing a little soul-ripping. Buff up a little."

James's face fell and grew pale immediately.

"It was a joke, Jimmy." I rolled my eyes.

"Well, it wasn't funny."

James put the tea in front of me, and I curled my fingers around the hot mug and sighed at the warmth. "It was a little funny."

James had his eyes narrowed at me, observing me, trying to search my face. "Really think we could do it? Before time runs out, I mean?"

"Dad said I look like I'm a hundred thousand years old on the inside. I could probably do anything." Confidence is key when you want to hide the fact that you've probably never been more scared  _ever_.

James took a sip, contemplating. I knew he was going to say yes. His heart was even more golden-er than mine, if that's possible.

"I just want to curl up with this tea and finally getting around to reading "Finnegan's Wake"." He said instead, swallowing the tea and clinking the cup down on the table.

I finally laughed, more of a guffaw. "You  _always_  want to do that."

"Yeah, well, like I said I've never gotten around to it." He mumbled, he knew I knew what his decision was already.

"So you're in?" I asked.

"Meh." He answered. "I guess 'Finnegan's Wake' sucks anyway."

"That's the spirit." I felt adrenaline begin to pump into my blood. My shard twinged again and I gritted my teeth, trying not to cry out. Hopefully Gabriel was right, that maybe a better future for us was forming for us as we disappeared. No matter how much I insisted I was fine, I really was scared. I didn't want to die and resort to killing myself before I turned into the devil's left hand man.

I slung my arm over James as we made our way to the door. He was the perfect height for an armrest, really.

"Our death march," James spoke up, his low voice gave me chills.

"We're not dying, Jim." I had to insist.

"Sure feels like it," He mumbled.

And I hated to admit it, but it kind of did.

* * *

_James POV_

Life isn't exactly normal when you're a half-angel and half-human.

For example, they say to never fly on a full stomach. Of course, it's highly scientific, but angels can tuck into themselves and create little to no friction as they rocket from one side of the Earth to the other. However, food is not a part of the usual angel's form and is technically a foreign substance. So, even though food is inside a half-angel's body it could produce enormous amounts of friction during your travel and you'll arrive at your destination with a belly full on fire. Literally.

How physics can allow for an object moving at that speed anyway is something I think about almost every day. Shouldn't an angel who disappeared at the speed of light be the still image if when they left, a print in the air, a mirage that would slowly fade into the red color spectrum before disappearing? What the hell is a science guy like _me_ doing as a half-angel? I swear.

This was all going through my head as I loaded my gun. 

Anyway, I got off track. The reason I bring this up is that my life is strange. My cousin is simultaneously my half-brother just by angel rule of thumb, and I have a half-cousin who just happens to be the wolf who is supposed to destroy the world and Odin during Ragnarok.

He was standing right in front of us (in human form, thank Grandfather, if he'd been his pitch-black wolf I just might have fainted). He looked irritated as hell and I swear it was like the fur on his back would be sticking right up.

"Just where in fuck's name do you think you're going?" He growled.

I gulped.

"Hunting," Henry shot back. "We're Hunters. It's what we do."

"You two have done this twice already and neither time turned out well. Are you really stupid enough to do this again?" Fenris rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "You li'l shits are dumber than I thought."

Henry crossed his arms right back, strengthening his stance. "We might as well get rid of her before we disappear. Fenris, she's  _eating_  other demons. And getting stronger every time. We might not get another chance before she's too powerful."

"Don't even think about going." Fenris was blocking the doorway, his dark eyebrows hooding his eyes. I have no idea how Henry can talk to him like that. He intimidated me like no one else.

"...without me." Fenris finished, finally grinning and crossing his arms, leaning on the doorpost. I perked up and looked at him, squinting. Had I just heard that correctly?

_Wha...?_

I couldn't help but tilt my head to the side. I'm just going to face the fact that I'll probably never understand my Uncle Sammy's side of the family.

Henry was grinning too. "Have I told you that you rock?"

"You don't do it enough." Fenris twirled a key ring on his finger.

Oh, no he wasn't.

Those were the keys to  _my dad's Impala._

"C'mon, kids. You're twenty, he's twenty-three, and I'm three thousand, five hundred and sixty-three. I think I know who's doing the driving." Fenris joked.

"Hey. That's a Winchester object, in which  _you_  aren't related. So I think I'll do the driving." Henry playfully snatched the keys from his brother.

"It's  _my_  dad's car." I insisted. "So, by bloodline, _I'm_ the most fit for the driving."

No doubt I was the smallest, youngest, and possibly the biggest softy out of the two of the sons of Gabriel. And I wasn't even that soft, which was saying something. Of course it was rational to lower my expectations. And they were giving me these  _looks_.

Well...

I drove.

And it was fucking awesome.

Dad had the  _best_  tapes in the glovebox. And tearing up the empty road at four in the morning when no one else is out and the air is cool and crisp, the door pulsing with vibrations from the loud music, screaming "Highway Star" at the top of your lungs with your two badass cousins in the car (I mean, come on, one guy can turn into a friggin' wolf and the other can literally rip demon souls straight out of their body), it was basically one of the best feelings ever.

I tried to forget that my fingers were slowly getting colder as less remained, that we were about to face one of the most powerful demons that was no longer locked up in hell.

I often related to Cas most days. I felt like  _Dean_  almost a hundred percent, in this moment.

And I wasn't scared.


	15. Chapter 15

"Dean," Castiel's eyes slipped open and he blinked. Dean stirred groggily. Cas had his arm hooked over Dean's midsection, his forehead pressed to the bare skin on his back and their hairy bare legs tangled together underneath the covers. But of course, they hadn't done anything tonight (except a lot of kissing, which had already overwhelmed poor Cas in itself).

"Hmmmm?" Dean asked sleepily. "Cas? S'matter?"

"I don't feel James or Henry in the house any longer." The angel's voice was clearer and much more sharp than Dean's sleepy voice. Dean shuffled in the covers and slipped to rest his back on the backboard, rubbing his eyes with his fists.

"Think they're...they've dissappeared? Already?" Dean asked, yawning and letting out a happy sigh as Cas came and snuggled up to him once again, wrapping his arms around his torso and resting his head on his shoulder.

"I don't feel Fenrisulfr's presence here either." Cas explained. "I don't know what's happening."

Dean finally seemed to wake up fully, his body making a slight jerk at his realization. "Aw, hell. Cas, James went after that last demon. I know James and that's what he did."

The two finally pulled apart from each other, Dean pulled on a white tee and his favorite jacket, pulling on jeans and his boots as Cas similarly got dressed, buttoning up his shirt and pulling his jeans up over his waist.

"Cas, I-" Dean felt fear like bile at the back of his throat as he stared down Cas. "Is my baby okay?" He asked in a soft whisper. "Can you tell where he is?" 

"Yes, he's fine. As far as I can tell. I've completed a scan and I've found them. The three of them are moving fast towards a dark and strong presence that I can only think is the time-traveling demon Mammon. I know you don't like flying, but-" He started.

 Dean shook his head. "Trust me. It's fine. Anything."

Dean cupped his palm to Cas's cheek, feeling soft stubble sliding beneath his fingertips, and he pulled forward to gave him a quick smooch, like it was the most natural thing in the world, before shrugging on his outmost layer of clothing and his jacket. "Go wake Sam, please."

Dean grabbed his gun, the one that he'd carved a devil's trap into every bullet and a flask of holy water, before rushing out to find Cas and a very disoriented Sam.

"Cas, you said they were moving fast?" Dean asked, an idea dawning on him. "They didn't just angel-poof there?"

"No." Cas said, and was a little surprised when Dean spun around and was sprinting down to the garage.

"Oh  _hell_ no." There was just a big, empty slab of concrete with no sign of his shiny black beauty. "If anything happens to either of my babies, I swear to God..."

"Guess we're flying then, huh?" Sam rubbed his eyes. "Hunting hell's worst at four thirty in the morning. Great."

* * *

Henry might not have been a bookworm and science guy like James was, but he wasn't dumb. The two cousins made quite a team when they put their heads together.

Henry and James let Fenris drive when they began to get closer, they both sat in the backseat, clasping their hands together and carving the devil's trap under the ground even before they got there.

James, around halfway through with his side, began shaking and his fingertips trembled within Henry's. His concentration slipped, and the marks he was making became lighter and weaker. James hadn't noticed when he'd slipped forward, his forehead pressing to Henry's, his eyes shut and his fingers trembling uncontrollably.

"Take it easy, couz. I got it." Henry said reassuringly, crossing over to James's side and making the marks he's barely made stronger. James finally snapped back to reality and was breathing hard, shaking. Henry felt bad and had to remind himself that James wasn't as strong as he was, and the little bugger wasn't the type to complain even if he was being pushed too hard.

Henry finally sealed the trap and also came back to the backseat mentally, his own breathing a little hitched. He'd never made a trap from that far away before.

"You scared?" Henry asked James, who was still trying to steady his breathing.

"No way, asshole." James shot back, which earned him a loud chortle from Henry.

Henry looked down at his hands, which now were ghost-like almost down to the very wrist, his fingertips completely invisible by now. "I wonder what's changing." Henry said serenely. "I wonder if our new lives are going to be better, James."

James frowned. "I hope you get your dad back. And that stupid fucking shard out."

"Yeah, bud, me too." Henry said. "And I hope Cas doesn't have to go through all that this time."

"Yeah.." James closed his eyes and a look of pain crossed his face. "What about Hunting? Or what if...cause you're parents would both be there, what if we don't grow up together like before? What if.." A little water snuck into his voice and water shone from his eyes. "What if we're not even friends? What if we barely even see each other and we become those distant cousins who could care less.."

"Stop with the 'what-ifs'." Henry stopped him short. "You already know I'd do anything for you, Jimmy. That's not going to change in our next life, it's probably not going to change ever."

"Okay," James finally agreed, sighing shakily. "I hope things don't feel too different."

"Not like we'd even be able to tell." Henry said, and James snorted.

"You guys are such girls." Fenris laughed huskily from the front seat. "Get your kissing over with 'cause we're here."

He killed the engine and hooked his arm around the seat to look at them. "Oh shit." He said, and the two whipped around and saw Sam, Dean and Cas standing behind the car. All three of them looked pissed.

"Yeah, oh shit." Henry said under his breath.

"Just what in the hell do you think you're doing?" Dean was holding his gun and strode up to them. "There isn't even a saying for 'fool me three times'. So I'm just gonna assume it's 'shame on you.' "

"Look. We don't have anything to lose." James spoke up this time. "You're the ones who need to be careful. You're my parents and if you die, I die."

A scream of anguish pierced the air, coming from inside the building, and James still kept his eyes on Dean and Cas.

"There's no way in hell I'm letting you go in there alone." Dean growled. "I won't let myself let you get hurt like that again."

"What, dad, stabbed?" James frowned. "Please. I don't even have a scar. It just comes with the job!"

"A job I never wanted you to have!" Dean shot back. "Jamie-"

"He's right, Dean." Cas interrupted him. "We can't risk you being hurt."

Dean stammered. " _Me_  getting hurt?"

"Your brother and you are the only mortals here. If you die..." Cas answered, and Dean rolled his eyes.

"It's either all of us, or no one goes." Dean slipped his hand into Cas's.

* * *

The blonde was pacing, blood staining her mouth and getting in her long strands of hair. "What is this, a family reunion?" She spat. "How sweet."

The two half-angels insisted on being in front at the very edge of the devil's trap, sheilding the other three behind them. Fenris was almost lost in the shadows, his huge, black wolf form with his flank to Sam and Dean's backs, his head was lowered and just the beginings of a snarl on his snout.

She made a sweeping motion with her arm, and suddenly Sam was flung across the room, there was a sickening crack as ribs broke. Dean the same, but he was flung the opposite direction, and when he hit the ground, his face was lax and he didn't move.

" _Dad_..!" Both boys cried out, as Sam breathed raggedly and tried to stand up. Fenris was already there, nosing him to try and help him up. Cas had Dean in his arms, trying to heal him as fast as he could. It left the two boys to face her on their own.

"You fuckin' touch my father-" Henry's hands curled into fists and a small breeze began to ruffle his hair.

James saw Henry in vain trying to produce his shadow of influence, but the three-dimensional shadow didn't get very far past the small glow of his skin.  _Henry, what's happening?_ James shot out the thought, and Henry closed his eyes and gritted his teeth.

"Looks like someone's having a little trouble?" The demon flicked her tongue across her teeth. "What's the matter? Baby doesn't know what to do?"

The blonde woman smiled smugly. "I know all about you two. You've been tracking me, and badly at that, for months. One of you is part-archangel. And I know all about those fancy schmancy powers of yours, big boy."

Henry tried to concentrate, he extended his arm an opened his palm, taking a deep breath, and James saw a little more of the shadow exude, begining to turn from a glow into a moving plasma, the shadow beginning to sway like flames among his shoulders.

 _Keep going!_ James urged, and Henry dipped his head down, a red line of blood dipping from his nose and dribbling over his lips.

"No, no. Don't do that, honey." The demon smirked, her red lipstick pulling to reveal perfect white teeth, and she suddenly made a kind of pushing motion, and Henry let out a gasp and his knees buckled, James quickly wrapping his arms around his torso to stop him from hitting the ground.

"What did she just  _do_?" James whispered into his ear, helping him to stumble to his feet. His whole chin was glistening with blood, his nose was streaming now from both nostrils.

"She has her own." Henry coughed out. "Fucking Christ, she has her own."

James had to concentrate a little harder than usual to see it, but Henry was right. The woman had her own shadow, whipping around the room, most of it circling around Henry and pushing his down, not letting him use his.

 _Fuck_. She must have consumed thousands of demons to gain that kind of power.

"James." Henry wheezed, he'd gone back to square one, and his shadow had snapped back to a resting state once again. "There's only one thing I can do now, James."

His cousin understood without Henry explaining. He remembered the dream that he'd had a few nights ago, Henry with a strange suited man standing behind him. He realized now, it had been the devil. And the only way Henry would be strong enough to rip out this demon's soul...

James cupped his face, Henry's cheek was damp with sweat and he was shaking, he dragged his hand over his mouth but only smeared the blood. "I have to do it," Henry coughed out, and James was shaking his head.

"We can kill her other ways!" James squeezed Henry's shoulder, hard. Still, it didn't produce much of a squeeze, the transparency had crept down to his forearm already. " _Please_."

"I have to do this, James." Henry closed his eyes. He let go of his cousin's shoulder in shock, he saw what he most feared. Henry was using that shard, pulling it bigger, letting it take him over, as it pulsed bright and strong. James didn't realize he was crying. Henry tried grinning at him one more time, his eyes squinting like he was looking directly into the sun. "See you in another life, brother."

Once he let Lucifer's grace take him over almost all the way, the demon was incapable of holding him back anymore. Henry's shadow exploded from his body, long tendrils bursting and whipping, tearing up the floors and walls, the largest amount, a piece of darkness like a wave, rushed forward and wrapped around the blonde-haired girl, battling with her until he could reach inside and snake around her blackened soul, gripping tight.

Fires burst to ignite along the far wall and miscellaneously around the room. Dean was slowly coming to in Cas's arms, and he could see through the two boys and see the fires through their bodies as James held Henry from behind, letting his long-legged cousin lean back into him.

Blood was pooling around the two of them as they both began to bleed from the spining substance, they were getting less and less visible as Dean and Cas watched, dumbstruck.

Then, it was just over. Mammon's soul was ripped from her body, black, ink-like substance exploded to every corner of the room, coating the walls in its filth, and everyone in the room.

Dean was the last one to see them; the shape of the two boys, covered in ink-black, before the black splashed to the floor and the shapes disappeared into nothing.

"See you in five years, Jamie." Dean breathed. Cas helped him up, Dean groaned as his newly healed bones still throbbed. He was sticky and covered in that black stuff, it reminded him of Leviathan blood.

"Let's go home, Cas." Dean said as the angel wrapped his arm around his stomach, helping him as he limped over to Sam and Fenris.

Sam was leaning onto his step son, his face still a little pale from the pain. "I guess they're gone, then, huh?" Sam said sadly, finally relaxing a little as Cas healed his broken bones.

"Not forever." Dean insisted. "We'll see them again. Henry in two years, James in five."

"I guess so," Sam answered, smiling just a little as he wiped his face of the black soul, smearing it a little as he tried to get it off. "What a damn trip."

"Let's head home and get all this off." Dean said, and the four of them couldn't agree more. They were careful not to slip on all the black sludge as they made for the doors.

Sam washed Fenris off in the hose outside, and the man looked like he was having the time of his life as the gigantic black wolf shook and sprayed water drops everywhere. Sam always _had_ been a dog person. He looked like a little boy with his chrismas wish that had came true.

Dean and Cas went inside to shower. Of course, the angel could have cleaned himself without it, but he wanted to see what all the hype was about as Dean bragged that nice showers were basically the third on his list of best things, below #1 (sex) and #2 (really good food).

Dean washed Cas's hair for him and the two watched as black swirled down the drain and was replaced with clean white suds.

Cas said that he liked kissing in the shower because the warm water ran down his face and into his lips as he kissed at that it was nice. Dean agreed. Cas said he didn't like it when the stingy soap got in his eyes. Dean said he'd try to make sure he'd be more careful next time. Cas said he liked the fluffy towels and he wished he and Dean wouldn't have to share one because then Cas would never get dry with Dean's slippery skin on him. Dean laughed for a long time after that.

It's hard to distract yourself after a day like that. The bunker felt way too empty now. Fenris had cleaned the makeshift beds on the couch away before they could see them so they wouldn't feel bad. By now the dawn had already broken, but of course all of them were dog-tired.

Fenris had kicked back on the couch to watch television while drinking a beer, as Sam did the same next to him. Dean made pancakes as Cas "helped" (watched with instense interest). And when they went out to the living room again, both of them were fast asleep, Fenris was snuffling and snoring loudly, the massive dog had his head resting on Sam's chest. Sam was utterly pinned down and almost completely covered by the wolf's body, his arm was hooked up in the dog's armpit as he held onto him with his hand tangled in the dark fur, Sam was also completely knocked out and snoring with his lips slightly parted. 

Dean took a picture for blackmail, snickering with Cas about it and how ridiculous they looked. Still, he wondered if Sam's step-son was going to stick around.

Then, with a full belly and sleepy eyes, Dean crawled back into their (God, he'd have to get used to saying 'their') bed, the sheets still rumpled in the same place they'd left them, and went to sleep.

Cas closed his eyes and watched Dean dream. Dean dreamt that he, Cas and James had gone out to a diner for lunch, and James was probably six and way too enthusiastic about wanting a chocolate malt milkshake. And both of them, Dean in his sleep and Cas with his arms around him, laughed as little boy James wound up squirting chocolate malt from his nose as he tackled the straw and sucked like his life depended on it once the beverage had arrived.

And the new timeline, like a rail line switching tracks, finally clicked completely into place.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not usually very good at writing smut. To be completely honest, I always am too embarrassed of my own self to get into the really nitty-gritty details. This chapter instead details more about angel reproduction and how grace works. I hope you like it! I am a little nervous to post it :/ so please let me know what you think :)

Dean was surprised at how normal life went on after everything that happened. He was glad that Sammy didn't seem too sad that Gabriel wouldn't be seeing him for a while. In fact, he was pretty upbeat lately. Dean thought Sam was happy for him, seeing him with Cas. The angel really made Dean happy, and he thought that made Sam happy.

Things went on like normal, hunting things. But sometimes things settled down, and those were the days Dean loved. Like tonight.

The three of them were settled down on the couch, watching one of the older "Star Wars" movies. Sam had nodded off to sleep a while ago, and the two of them watched in silence as the blue light from the television illuminated their faces, Cas liked to hold Dean's hand as Dean's other hand dug among the buttery popcorn bowl.

That was one thing Dean learned quickly once he'd gotten involved with Cas. That the angel didn't mind the silence, in fact he almost preferred it. Dean liked that not every moment had to be filled with a voice. It was easy, being with him. He'd seem content with Dean just brushing his fingers over his back in passing or Dean's hand resting on his thigh as they drove together. He was calming, which was probably what Dean needed. 

"Would it burn my eyes out to see them?" Dean spoke up after a long, silent spell. He watched a few jedis battling each other on screen.

" I mean, I saw Henry's that one time he was protecting James, right?" Dean asked, keeping his voice a little hushed, as Sam was already fast asleep and draped on the armrest.

"You mean my wings?" Cas asked, a little embarrassed as a pink flushed on his cheeks. "I mean, you've never asked about them before."

"And I wasn't your boyfriend before either," Dean chuckled. "So could I? You know, see them?"

Castiel nodded. "I could show them to you, yes." He looked a little embarrassed still.

"I mean, Cas, if you're not ready for that, man, I totally understand. We can take things slow." Dean felt a little bad, he squeezed his hand reassuringly. "You can set the pace here, Cas."

They hadn't really done much yet, and Dean actually  _liked_  it that way. It felt so much nicer taking it slow, something he'd never gotten the chance to do before.

The angel shook his head. "It's not that. If I bring them into this dimension I might...I don't know the appropriate word for it. Leak."

Dean brought his eyebrows together. " _Leak_..?" He asked. "Leak what?"

"My..." Cas shook his head. "Never mind. It's embarassing."

Dean got a sad look on his face and pulled forward, giving him a soft kiss and taking his hand, holding it up to his chest. "You don't have to be embarrassed in front of me. I promise."

"I...ever since we've been together, my reproductive glands realized it is time to begin producing oils." He answered. "They're..very full at the moment."

Dean realized. "Shit. Cas, have I been angel blue-balling you?"

Cas reddened. "I don't know what that means."

Dean cleared his throat. "These..uh, glands. What's up with them? Do they, like, have to be emptied?"

"The oils serve many purposes. Scent of another angel's oils increases fertility, it gives our feathers a healthy sheen that tells other angels we already have a mate. We also use it on fledglings to keep their skin healthy and nuture budding wings." Cas hesitated before continuing. "It..does need to be drained. By one's mate. I've tried to do it myself, but...I can't reach all the way."

Dean snuck his hand around and cradle the back of Cas's neck. "Is it hurting you?" He asked gently. "You don't have to lie to me, Cas."

"They are more swollen then they should be." He answered. "A small bit painful."

Dean frowned, and he smoothed his hand down Cas's back. He felt a softly sloping kind of swelling there. "Here?" He asked, and the angel nodded. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

"I thought you would think it's strange." Cas admitted. "They do hurt, Dean. A lot." He admitted again.

"Well, let's get you taken care of then, huh?" Dean smiled and kissed him, lifting him up by his waist with a grunt and then holding handfulls of his ass and Cas locked his ankles around Dean's back. Dean lifted him up and carried him to their (that's right,  _their_ , and he wasn't ashamed of it anymore) room.

The bed dipped as they both dropped on top of it, Cas's breathing was hitched when he realized what this might mean. He knew that once his oils were released for the first time by his mate, it was virtually impossible for him to stay a virgin anymore. Even if he resisted with his body, he'd definitely lose his grace's virginity, as it would reach out and find its other half, looking for that special angel someone to share grace-union with, the act of two graces coming together.

"Let's see those wings, Cas." Dean rubbed the tip of his nose into a pale spot on Cas's neck, kissing the same spot, brushing over it with his tongue and sucking, hard. Cas moaned and his back arched a little.

His heart was pounding. They'd shared their first kiss close to a month ago, and he didn't know if he was ready yet.

"We don't have to go all the way." Dean's voice was slow and just on the cusp of a whisper. "Just let me help you with those oils."

Cas felt a shiver down his spine when Dean brought his rough, square palms up Cas's bare back, reaching under the thin cotton of his shirt and bunching it up. Cas pulled the rest of it off, ducking out of it and tossing it aside. Dean grinned as Cas fumbled at the hem of his shirt right back, and Dean swiftly freed himself of his own shirt, tossing it to be a lump on the floor.

"I want to see them. I've been waiting." Dean's fingers softly massaged the slight swells over Cas's shoulder blades. "I want to cover every feather with it, I want other angels who see your wings to know you're taken, that you're mine." Cas sighed, a small needy whine building at the back of his throat as he buried his face in the crook of Dean's neck.

"I want them to see that you'll be the father of my children, that no one else can have you-" Dean felt something massive spring up underneath his fingertips as Cas tensed and pulled his wings into this dimension with a noisy flap, they snapped outward to full width. Dean's eyes were drawn from Cas's partly hidden face to the massive appendages stretched out proudly just above him, like a dark canopy. Cas's wings were already stiff and the tips were curled, open and inviting Dean to take them into his hands. The gigantic black feathers twitched in anticipation, the feathers spread sharp and erect. Cas felt blood pounding through his body from his heart.  _Touch me already. Empty me._

"Mmmmmm..." Cas moaned in pain, he felt oil swelling even more in his already overfilled pouches over his shoulder blades, the oil that was produced whenever he and Dean shared something intimate. He hunched his back and knotted his hand into Dean's hair. "Dean..please..." He whimpered, the twitching of his feathers less subtle now.

"W-Where are they? What do you need me to do?" Dean asked uncertainly, desperate to help. 

"My back. Where my wings meet my back." Dean quickly began running his fingers through the feathers, starting close to the base and running cautiously down, his pale fingers getting swallowed by the downy black, getting closer and closer to where his swollen glands were located. Cas stiffened as Dean's fingers came even closer.

"Here?" Dean asked uncertainly. Cas shook his head, his fingertips jittering. He was afraid the pouches might burst or tear if Dean didn't get to them soon. Dean kept searching, finally his fingertips brushed the swell of his skin, the slight lump over his shoulder blades .

With the touch Cas felt a small amount, sticky, viscous and warm, ooze from the small pores, coating his back. _"Ahhhh,"_ He panted, melting under Dean's touch and pressing his nose up to the side of Dean's warm neck. The oil's scent, oaky and honeysuckle-sweet was already in the air. "Here." Dean said in more of a statement, and he rubbed in a gentle semi-circle. 

"Dean- _mmm_ ," Cas felt the buildup of oils ooze up out of his grands and slip thickly over his feathers and onto Dean's hand, and he sighed in relief as he finally felt comfortably empty on one side, and Dean rubbed softly once more and the last of the warm oil gushed out onto his now-slick black feathers.

"Tell me," Dean replied breathlessly. "Tell me what it feels like." 

"God I...it's like I'm wet..." Cas moaned, partly as the scent hit him ike a wall. "Don't stop." It was so thick and sweet he could almost _taste_ it, and it was doing funny things to his body. His wings stretched all the way out, his dark feathers inviting Dean's fingers to run over them, to coat them, to change their shine and show other angels he was off-limits. That he belonged to a mate already, that he was going to be a father and no one but _Dean_ could touch him. Cas felt a heat pooling in his stomach and a swelling between his legs, pushing against the denim of his jeans. His grace began to swirl excitedly, the light opening and ready for another angel's light to enter it.

Dean hardly wasted any time emptying the next gland on his other wing, the oil from the previous one coated Dean's hand, clean moisture slipping over the dry feathers of this one.

"Dean," Cas breathed, his breath coming fast in his throat this time. "Dean, please." His wings curled up and arched around the human, and Cas fitted himself on top of him. Dean looked startled at the sudden move. Dean's arousal was pushing against Cas's through his pants.

Green eyes met blue. "You have to-to.." Cas moaned as more oozed out as Dean's cool fingers gently brushed over his skin that was slick with oil. "Flip me over," Cas demanded, and Dean a little less-than-elegantly managed to get up over Cas's massive wings and straddle his back. 

"Like you said, every feather..." Cas breathed into the pillow under his cheek as he felt his body relax, his wings shuddering-ever-so-slightly as Dean took one of his primary feathers and began to coat it with oil. He felt each touch as Dean dragged his fingers through his shorter, softer feathers closer to the base of his back, and he came apart as Dean curled his fingers around the top joints.

Cas felt his grace swirling hotter and faster inside his body, as if it were angry that the expectant foreign grace had not entered into his yet. He stifled a moan and used all the strength he could to keep it inside, as it began to rush and swirl faster inside his body. He felt it churning, getting itself ready to rise up and seek its mate instead of waiting.

Cas struggled to keep it down. He didn't want to frighten Dean with grace-union when he hadn't even explained to the human what it was yet, how angels reproduced when it wasn't an action of the flesh. His hands gripped the sheets and a soft moan escaped his lips, it was getting harder to keep it in check by the second. 

"What's wrong?" Dean's curious hands stopped exploring the angel's wings that were stretched out below him. "Cas, am I doing something wrong here?" 

The angel shook his head. "No, it's just..." His own grace shoved harsh up against his vessel, and Cas bit back a gasp. He never would have forseen his instincts being this strong, being this hard to control...instead, he flipped back around so that his wings were pressed up to the sheets below him and he pulled Dean in for a kiss with his palms on both sides of his face. Dean kissed back with vigor, and then worked up from his chest to his neck, kissing here and there, burying his nose just below his jawbone and sucking, brushing his tongue across the pale skin. Cas worked to quickly tug Dean's jeans off, right when Dean finally landed on his lips again, sucking on the bottom one and flicking his tongue out over its surface before exploring deeper into his mouth.

Cas felt more oil gush from his glands again and he groaned in a low tone, he felt it coating his shoulders and wicking into the sheets beneath them. His grace was tugging harshly on the reigns, begging to enter into grace-union with its mate already. It was starting to get painful, the churning was getting faster and Cas began to see stars and dark snowflakes swirled in his vision. 

Cas felt his whole self brimming and ready to burst, his grace was begging for release from his body. He gritted his teeth in a grimace and let out a low, pained moan. Dean didn't know that he was going to feel the angel's very grace inside him, Cas hadn't warned him. But it was too late now.

"They're so beautiful," Dean's voice was low and comforting as he continued stroke the feathers in Cas's wing, oil from his fingers easily wicking into the dark feathers. Cas's eyes were squeezed shut, his muscles tense as he tried to hold his impatient grace in check. 

"Dean-" Cas managed to yelp, and there was only a split second before his grace coiled up and burst all at once from his body, illuminating the room with a bright white as it surged into Dean's soul, hot, swirling, ready seek out and finally meet the soul of his lover.

Dean's loud yell was swallowed up by the loud sound of the roaring light as it pushed past his skin and bone and into his soul, Cas gasped and quickly reached up and grabbed Dean's neck, pulling his head into the space between his neck and shoulder so his eyes wouldn't burn out. He knew he only had a second before-

His grace made contact with Dean's soul, and immediately stopped on its river-rapid like advancement. With the first touch it instead stalled, calming itself and Cas finally got a grip once again on the rampaging light, harnessing and keeping it in check as it guided gently on.

Dean's soul shivered in recognition as Cas's light touched it again gently, breifly, asking sweetly for permission. Dean's soul remembered his grace. The wall it had put up to block the rampaging, out-of-control light hesitantly disappeared, and Cas nudged at it, entering with a small, gentle push.

Dean bit down on the tender area where the neck meets the shoulder, hissing out a breath as Cas pushed deeper into Dean's soul, wrapping around it, melting deeper into it, moving around curiously like it was looking around.  _So this will be my new mate_. The light seemed to emote, and Cas felt an intense sense of relief and recognition as he explored farther, curling his fingers gently around the nape of Dean's neck that was slightly damp with sweat. Dean's tiny soul shivered as the grace had almost fully wrapped around it now.

"Hello, Dean." Cas's words just seemed to fall from his lips. This was the real, absolute core of Dean. He felt like saying hello, this was really only the second time he'd met his pure and total self like this. The angel felt that same feeling he had a long time ago when he pulled this same soul from hell, the feeling that he knew him utterly and completely.

"Cas, this is _you_?" Dean whispered in awe, finally completely understanding that Castiel wasn't that human underneath him, but was purely the light inside him and nothing else. "Cas.." He whimpered, moaning out as his fingernails dug into Cas's back as the light began to unravel, bringing back into itself and getting ready to recede back into its own body. He pressed desparately to Cas's skin. "No-please- don't leave me just yet.."

Cas felt himself collecting up again, pulling away and separating from Dean's grace, receding like the pull of a wave as he ghosted over the bright, familiar soul. This was  _his_  now. He claimed it, he had wrapped around it tight and melted inside it. No one else was allowed this soul, Dean's soul.  _His_  soul.

Cas was exhausted when his grace finally pulled completely back into his body, both he and Dean were panting chest-to-chest. "Cas?" Dean asked, alarmed when his angel's eyelids slipped closed and his sweaty chest began to heave in and out. "Cas, sweetheart, are you okay? Was that supposed to happen?!"

Cas gulped in breaths, barely managing to nod. "I'm sorry," He panted. "I..I didn't mean to. I tried to stop it- I tried so hard..."

Dean cupped the side of his face. "Don't worry. I'm okay, Cas." He looked at the angel's disheleved expression and understood. "I'm not afraid of you, Cas. I promise."

Cas frowned and blinked, looking away from Dean's face in shame. "But you _screamed_. When my grace entered you." He covered his face in his hands. "Dean, we're different species and I didn't tell you that angel reproduction does not require a body and you screamed and I'm so sorry Dean I'm sorry-"

"Cas, shh, it's okay." He swept a lock of damp hair from his head. "It was because it..hurt a little. Just for a split second. That was why I yelled."

Cas looked even more guilty. "It hurt you?" His blue eyes shone innocently with guilt.

"I said for a split second. I feel fine now." Dean said, even thought his soul was throbbing a little even now, but it wasn't a bad kind of hurt.

Dean was quiet for a second as he looked into Cas's face. "You didn't tell me something about the oil, did you?" He asked. "'Cuz this stuff would probably make the nicest lube I've ever messed around with."

Cas blushed a little. "It..can be used for lubrication, yes." He stammered. Dean kissed him again and helped him to sit up, wrapping his arms around his neck as he kissed Cas in his lap. "I guess we'll have to find that out later, huh?" He breathed into his lips.

Cas simply pulled forward and kissed him back, he couldn't help himself as small, flame-like tendrils of light curled into Dean's open and inviting soul, which was still throbbing and burning hot from his touch, when Cas had claimed it as his own.

"Damn," Dean breathed when their lips pulled apart for a split second. "Angel mojo sex fuckin' rocks."

"Mojo sex?" Cas repeated, laughing a little in relief. He had been terrified that he'd hurt Dean, or scared him away with the completely foreign way of angel copulation. But he'd said he'd enjoyed it, and Cas felt all his shame melt away. Experimentally, he pushed gently into Dean's soul and squeezed softly, Dean moaned out and bit down hard on his teeth.

"Dude. What else am I supposed to call i-" Dean interrupted himself with an almost embarrassingly loud moan, as Cas had now put in two little ropes of white flame, which pushed gently in and were swirling together. " _Fuck_. Stop teasing me like that- _mmm!_ " Dean tipped his face forward and slotted his lips to fit with Cas's. 

Cas pushed in again, trying a different technique this time as he didn't work on the surface of the soul but instead absorbed a small piece of grace into Dean's, the human soul absorbing it right in like water to a sponge.

" _Fuck_." Dean's eyes rolled back as he clawed at the sheets. " _Cas_!"

The angel pushed hard with his grace, going much deeper than he meant to. Dean gasped and, untouched, a wet spot seeped onto his boxers, his nails biting into Cas's back. The angel gathered himself up and receded again, once again softly ghosting over Dean's soul as if he were saying _mine_. Dean collapsed into the crook of his neck, panting.

"Damn," Dean said between breaths. "God, I'm going to be your little bitch from now on, huh? Let me tell you.." Dean breathed deeply, laughing. "Let me just tell you- Jesus, I never thought soul-sex would feel...feel like  _that_."

"Good or bad?" Cas whispered, a little uncertain. Did he hurt him just now, when he'd pushed a little too deep? He was worried if he had.

"Better than good. _Awesome_." Dean said back, kissing his lips softly before getting up. "We should clean up a little. And all this oil is all over us."

"Shower?" Cas asked, hopeful. He loved showers. Dean said some people had shower-sex, but Cas didn't want to hear it. He just liked the kissing, warm water slipping over his lips and cheeks, and how smooth Dean's skin felt with a layer of warm water slicked over it. And when you climbed out and got a fluffy towel to wrap yourself in.

"Shower." Dean confirmed, laughing. "I love that you love showers."

Cas liked showers only second-best to the cuddling that came after one. It was the best when both of their skin was dry but still radiating slightly with heat and their skin was pink and warm. Cas liked to tease Dean by kissing his pink-with-heat back on top of the freckles, the cold tip of his nose making him twitch a little, and Dean would laugh. "Cas, stop! That's _cold_!"

Cas liked watching Dean dream once he'd fallen asleep, because most of them featured him or James in some way. They'd transformed into much sweeter dreams than the stripper-filled ones he'd seen before. Even though their kid wasn't born yet, or even conceived, Dean really had come around to be a family man. 

Cas stepped into the tiled square and let Dean gage the water temperature as he stood away from the rushing water. Lastly, Cas liked to look at those tiny freckles on Dean's round ass as he felt the water for them before they'd start to clean off. But that was the one thing he'd never tell him.


	17. Chapter 17

It was seemingly a peaceful night, crickets were chirping and a light fog was curling delicately through tree branches, and not much could be heard besides the usual rustle of leaves in the cold, dark air. Two young men were the only things that broke this spell of silence- a tall, lanky one with longish, dark brown hair, and a shorter but powerful-looking man with a head of tousled black hair and a sharp jaw. They were running feircely, pumping their legs as fast as they would go as they charged through the dense forest, branches whipping past as their silver blades in hand flashed in the dim moonlight. They were sprinting after a single person, persuing with hunter-like reflexes. As the single person tried to quickly change direction, the two weren't very far behind as they skidded amongst the dried leaves and kept following.

"They're getting away!" The shorter one hissed out to the other one, gripping tightly to his blade as he struggled to keep going at this breakneck speed. "No shit, Sherlock!" The other one quipped back quickly, huffing out breaths as he pushed through a few obstructing branches. "Dad's gonna be fuckin'  _pissed_  if we don't gank her." He continued, and the two veered quickly to the right as the hooded figure made another attempt to thow them off its trail.

Suddenly, the demon completely came to a standstill, as if she were pushing against an invisible wall. The cousins skidded to a stop, looking at the trapped demon with matching grins on both of their faces. They exchanged a glance, both their eyes shining with accomplishment.

"You fuckin' little half-dicks..." The demon snarled, her dark black hair falling over her face, tiny wisps giving her the eery appearance of a cracked china doll.

Henry chuckled. "Trust me. I'll take that as a compliment."

The demon's hair was straight and black, falling down her back in a single sheet, and her face was plain and makeup-less. Not like the blonde, red-lipsticked time-traveling triplet Mammon. She'd been killed close to twenty-five years ago, now.

James looked smug as he tucked his hands into his grey overcoat. "Don't fuck with us Winchesters. And especially don't fuck with half-dicks."

"That sounds difficult yet oddly arosing." Henry quipped. "Like, which half is it? The left?"

" _Really_?" James crossed his arms. "You ruined my perfectly good one-liner."

"Ah, it wasn't _that_ good, shortstop." 

The demon looked infuriated. You would be too, by the way the cousins mocked their prey by acting like it was little more than a mouse caught in a trap.

"Well?" Henry asked, squaring his shoulders with his shorter cousin James. "Should I take out the trash, or should you?"

"Sorry, I would if my  _puny, lady arms_ that 'can't even lift' weren't so  _tired_." James feigned exhaustion.

"Fuck you and your memory. I said that like three days ago!" Henry laughed, rolling up the sleeves of his flannel. "Okay. I guess I could use a little practice."

He strode forward, and the demon laughed at him, eyeing his newly bared forearms. "What are you gonna do, punch me? Are you fucking kidding me?" She laughed again.

"Hey, 'kidding me' and I are strictly just friends." Henry smiled, and James slapped himself hard on the forehead. No one who else knew talked to demons like Henry.

The demons lips curled up unpleasantly. "I've seen your type before, bad boy." She purred. "You just want to break the rules. Why don't I give you a little taste of what hell has to offer, angel?"

James cringed at the desperation, like a caged animal that was trying to talk their way out of it. Many demons offered many different things; sex, deals, promises they'd never keep, James had heard it all before.

Henry flicked his eyes over her, smirking. " _Oh, so tempting_." His voice was dripping with sarcasm, and James snorted into his palm. "I'll have to say no." Henry replied with a smirk. "But I can still have you screaming my name."

He had Gabriel around in this life. So, things were different for him. He didn't have to have a cripplingly painful accident to learn his new skill. Gabriel showed him the right way from the start. He was no longer sloppy, tearing up the whole room either. One small rope of shadow was all he needed. It flicked out like a whip, quickly wrapping around the black, corrupted soul. The demon's eyes flew wide with terror. That was also an expression James was used to seeing. Henry thrust outward and uprooted it as easily as pulling a weed.

The black spattered onto the trees, and Henry stretched his arms, going and cracking his back. "All in a day's work, right Jimmy?"

"One down, probably a billion to go." James smiled back at him, having to reach up to clap him on the shoulder. "Let's go home. I'm fucking starving."

"I didn't know you and 'starving' were in that close of a relationship yet." Henry began cracking up.

 

James snorted. "I hate you."

Henry ambled next to him, throwing his arm over James's perfectly short shoulders and pulling him close, ruffling his black locks which had him groaning in protest. "I hate you too."

* * *

"If you two touched my stuff when I was gone I swear to God!" Henry bellowed as he saw his two little siblings, who were fifteen and thirteen, sprint out of sight, giggling, right when he and James finally clunked up the front steps to the bunker. "Jess! JC! Get out here  _now,_ you li'l shitbags!"

Henry looked to James and smiled. "Dude, I don't know what I'd do without you to keep me sane."

"Amen to that." James laughed. "C'mon, I need a drink."

The two were silent as they sat on the couch, quietly taking sips of their beers.

"Is it just me, or did you feel...I dunno,  _weird_  today?" James asked, lifting his eyebrow a little.

"Oh my god yes." Henry finally laughed. "Like...man, I don't even know. Just  _weird_."

" _Hennnrrryyyy_..." They heard one of the kid's voices call out, it sounded like John Castiel, who went by JC, the fifteen-year-old.

"What'dya want?" Henry called out in irritation, setting his beer down with a clink on the side table.

"Did you pick up that new video game for me?" JC came into the room, all gangly arms and legs, bright red hair flopping into his face.

"Dude, I was hunting a goddamn demon!" Henry preteneded to be mad. JC crossed his arms and lifted his eyebrows in expectation, and his little sister, thirteen-year-old Jess, peeked her brown-haired head around the corner. "Well? Didya get it or not?"

Henry groaned, and slipped the game from a his interior pocket, trying and failing to stop the smile from getting on his face as he saw the two teenager's faces light up as they rushed forward.

"Fuck yeah!" JC called out, snatching up the game. "Thanks Henry!"

"Now get out of here, Fedex." Henry gently poked fun at the fact that they had no idea where his red hair came from. He waved him away and the two sprinted away down the hallway.

"I don't see why they don't ask Fenris to do it,  _lazy bastard_." Henry called out to the massive black dog who was snoozing in a lump by a patch of light on the floor. 

Fenris simply growled in irritation and buried his nose a little further into his paws. _I'm no one's newspaper_ _Labrador. _

"Well, I just wanted to say that you did a good job today, setting up that trap." James laughed. "It's nice getting away, huh?"

"Yeah," Henry clinked his beer with him. "I wonder if things would be weird without all this family."

"Definitely would be." James replied. "I wonder if Leo and Rob are coming back from their hunt soon."

"They'll probably be back soon. Did you see Cas was cooking up a storm in the kitchen? We're probably going to have the whole fam over for dinner tonight." Henry tipped back his head to rest on the couch, looking at the ceiling.

"It's weird, Jimmy. I never really let it sink in how  _lucky_  we are, you know?" Henry took another sip of beer. "I mean, our parents are always talking about how Hunter's can't afford family. But look at us, man. I've got my parents and Fenris and Jess and JC, and you've got your parents, Leo and Robbie, who are what, eighteen now? And our li'l sixteen year old couzie Kate, and Uncle Adam and Uncle Samandriel.."

Henry blinked and screwed up his face. "I wonder if that demon put a curse on us or something."

"What, like, a curse to make us appreciate our lives?" James chuckled. "I don't know. I'll ask Cas if he thinks something's up."

They were able to get a small moment of silence before they had to get up and rush around again.

The phone trilled loudly. " _Hennnnrrryyyy_ , the console's not connecting  _aggaaiinn_!" Jess was calling from another room.

"Fine! I'm coming!" Henry got up and stalked down the hallway.

"James, phone's for you." Dean shook the phone, his arm sticking out of the doorway from the kitchen.

James took the phone, brushed off the floury fingerprints, and put it to his ear. "Hello?"

"Tell dad we'll be home for dinner, kay? This body was just a little bit harder to move than usual. Did you know that a person's body that was possessed by close to a hundred demons at once gets really, really heavy?" James's little brother Leo's voice sounded from the other line, incredibly enthusiastic like it always was.

"I can't say I did know that, Lee." James answered. "Yeah, I'll tell dad. Need help with the equipment when you get back?"

"Yeah," Leo admitted. "I might need some help, I'm still learning how to clean it all."

"Right. See you soon." James laughed as he heard Leo's twin brother yell out at him. 'Stop stalling and help me shovel, you slacker!'

"Yeah-see you soon bye!" Leo shot out and the line finally clicked.

James passed by the youngest of his cousin's room and had to suppress a laugh. He saw Henry's large back in between the small backs of his younger siblings, as the three half-archangels stared at the game on the tv, Henry knocking his broad shoulder with JC's scrawny one. "Stop cheating, you asshole!"

"The green car's not me, dumbass! That's Jess!" JC insisted.

"Haha! You're getting beaten by a teenage girl!" Jess laughed, and Henry knocked her on the shoulder with his."  _Ow_!"

James chuckled to himself as went to head out back to help his little brothers in with their hunting gear. Henry was right. Ever since he woke up today he'd just felt really off, but not necessarily in a bad way.

Maybe they  _were_  lucky.

" 'Bout time you showed up." Robbie huffed, lugging a heavy duffle full of equipment. Robbie and Leo were two years younger than James, and Robbie had black hair like Cas but had Dean's green eyes. He acted a lot more like Dean than any of his siblings, but he did have a soft spot for classical music. All of them were like Cas in at least a small way.

"How'd the hunt go?" James asked, giving him a hand to lift the duffle onto a counter where they sterilized the weapons.

Robbie grinned happily at his older brother. "Pretty good. How 'bout you?"

"Clean as a whistle." James bragged, throwing up the OK sign. "Me 'n Henry are like peas and carrots."

"Always with the references," Robbie threw his head back and laughed. "You're such a nerd."

James took out the first bloody weapon and cringed. "Sheesh, dude. What's all this?" He indicated to the strange clumps of... whatever was on the thing.

"Eh, ran into a hoard of the undead. No biggie." Robbie joked with a shrug. James laughed.

"Ever just stop and think about how fuckin'  _weird_  our lives are, Bobby?" James asked, careful not to cut himself of the sharp edge of the machete as he pulled it from the duffle.

"All the damn time." Robbie's green eyes met James's blue and Robbie winked. Of course James loved spending time with his cousin Henry, but his little brothers were alright too.

"Jamie? Li'l help?" James's other little brother, Leoniel, all honey-blonde hair, big blue eyes and freckles, called out as he struggled to carry one of the large bags where they kept their clothes. It had just been the two brothers and their cousin Kate, Samandriel and Adam's daughter, on this hunt for close to three months.

James went out and helped him with the other bag of clothes, hoisting it over his shoulder. "Shit, Leo, these stink." He laughed. "We're gonna have to run the washer for days to get this all clean."

"So- _rry_!" Leo rolled his laughing blue eyes. "Not like you smell like a rose either, princess!"

* * *

James hadn't had a dinner with the whole family together like this in months. He and Henry were always off on their own, saving people, hunting things, and it was nice to come back home for a couple weeks before they'd go off for a little while again.

Too bad Uncle Adam and Uncle Samandriel didn't stay for dinner tonight, but they promised they'd be here tomorrow. It was funny to James how the seating always worked out, his brothers on one side and Uncle Sam's on the other. Jess, the only girl in the family, always sat next to JC. Fenris always sat next to Henry, and James always sat smack dab between his younger brothers.

Tonight, James was sitting across from red-haired JC. He hated when Henry was opposite of him because he'd pull shit like kick him under the table or tickle his leg, making him jump and ram his knees on the table as his leg jerked back. That bastard.

Dinner looked awesome. There was a big, juicy steak and bread and corn on the cob. They needed a lot of food around with growing fifteen year old JC and James's eighteen year old brothers. They ate like starving people, too. Teenage boys are worse than locusts, James thought with a shake of his head.

Dean spoke up a few minutes before dinner was over. "Henry? James?" The two perked up, setting down their forks.

"I'll bet you two were feeling strange today." Cas then spoke up, and the two eyes quickly met and pulled apart again. How would  _they_  know?

Dean cleared his throat."It's about time we told you what happened a long time ago." He looked around the table, crowded with familiar faces, and he couldn't help but wonder what life would have been like in that awful old time line. At least he'd never had to find out.


	18. Chapter 18

Dean sighed as he and Cas sat opposite of their three boys on the couch as they sat an on ottoman, Cas was gently holding Dean's hand in his and the boys were staring at them, getting ready for them to speak up.

Dean cleared his throat. Literally, where the hell was he supposed to start? "Did we ever tell you how me and your father got together?" Dean asked.

James tipped his head to the side. "What are you talking about?" Leo and Robbie seemed equally confused as they sat on James's either side.

"I mean, Cas pulled you from hell, right?" Leo piped up, tipping his blonde head to the side. "That's when it started?"

Dean swallowed. "Well, yes and no." He answered. "That was technically when we met. But the reason why we really got together..." He pressed his lips together. "James, it was because of you."

James brought his eyebrows together. "You mean, like, after I was concieved or something?"

Cas shook his head. "No. You travelled back in time, today." James was extremely confused and let Cas speak up again. "You were different than the person you are right now. Your brothers did not exist, and Sam and Gabriel's younger ones did not either. It was only you and Henry."

James was shocked. He tightened his arms protectively around his two little brothers. "What are you talking about?  _Nothing_  happened today."

"It was a different you from an alternate dimension. Henry was hurting from a deal he made to save your life, when both of us almost died from when I gave birth to you. Gabriel wasn't around either. I had almost died with you, James, and couldn't risk having more." Cas looked sadly at his eighteen year old twins, who looked frightened. James rubbed Leo's shoulder, the baby of the family.

"Well, what happened?" James asked.  _Just_  him and Henry? Sure, the younger kids could be irritating sometimes, but he loved them just as much as Henry.

"You and Henry changed that, into now." Dean explained. "I'm so proud of you, that you did. The old timeline basically sucked. And I'm damn grateful you changed it."

Cas gently curled his fingers into Dean's hand. He was too, he loved his family with Dean.

Dean decided to start from the beginning.

He cleared his throat and looked at the three pairs of eyes staring back at him. "Boys, as you know, things were...a little difficult for us."

James screwed up his face. "Dad. That's gross."

Dean rolled his eyes, but was smiling just a little. "Just let me explain, please?"

"I don't want you to tell them  _everything_." Cas said in embarrasment.

"Okay. Edited version, alright?" He kissed his angel on the cheek. "I'm leaving it up to you to teach them about mojo sex later on, baby." Cas flushed considerably just thinking about it.

"Now. Let me start from when James was..hmm..mixed." Dean failed to come up with a better word.

"Dad. I'm not a damn cake." James huffed, crossing his arms.

"Concieved is still the appropriate word, even though angel reproduction does seem strange." Cas butted in. "He was not.. _mixed_ , Dean."

Dean threw his hands up in apology. "Geez! So- _rry_! Can I just start my story now?" Dean cleared his throat again.

"So. Me and Cas had a little trouble bringing James into existence, I guess. Things were complicated for both our souls, mine was ravaged by hell and his all scarred up from the inside from the Leviathans, but we made it work somehow." Dean curled his fingers in Cas's. "It took- a lot of trying."

James had now covered his face in his hands, his face red with embarrassment. "Oh Lord, Dad..."

* * *

It was yet another night that they were supposed to try for a fledgling, which they'd been doing more and more often now that the five year mark was almost here. Dean felt awful, yesterday had been yet another failure and Cas had been extremely upset, sitting on the edge of the bed with his face in his hands as Dean wrapped his arm around him.

Dean thought he'd just want to go to sleep tonight instead of going again, he'd been mopy all day, holding three-year-old Henry much more often than usual and not speaking much to anyone.

They crawled into bed after Dean had brushed his teeth, the angel was still sad as he let Dean wrap his arms around him, burying his face in his chest and breathing out shakily.

Dean rubbed his back a little, and silently the angel tilted his head up and pressed his lips to Dean's.

"Love you, Cas." Dean whispered into his lips. "Don't worry, baby, we'll have a family soon enough."

Without saying anything, a delicate tendril of Cas's grace curled its way into Dean's soul and twisted with a piece of it, gently, before pulling away with a ghostly stroke.

"Are we going to try again?" Dean asked, running his hand through Cas's hair and pushing it off his forehead. Cas downcast his eyes and frowned a little. He wished he'd never been so stupid as to involve himself with the Leviathans. He thought it had all been over when he came to after lying on the floor in that warehouse, but he was so wrong.

Cas didn't speak but reciprocated with a few more little flame-like tendrils, sneaking into Dean's soul and tangling in it like gentle fingers in hair. It was hard even for Cas to keep track of both the body and soul at once, and he hadn't even noticed that lips were tenderly pressed to his once again.

"Hmm." Dean hummed from the back of his throat in a low tone, moving his palm up the base of Cas's neck and slipping his fingers through his dark hair. "That's nice, Cas."

* * *

"Dean!" Cas interrupted him from his story. "They're too young to hear about this yet." He blushed, squeezing his hands together.

"Dad, I'm  _twenty_." James laughed.

"In angel years you are still an infant! You only have one addition and your brothers haven't even started to form theirs, so I will not have you partaking in learning about the angel side of reproduction." Cas downcast his eyes in embarrassment. "My babies will not grow up too fast, not if I can help it."

Dean laughed and found himself kissing him again. "I love it when you get all protective-papa mode on them."

"Daaadd!" All three of them whined in several different pitches.

"Fucking finish the story already or I'm out!" Robbie huffed. "Jesus!"

"Fine! Geez, I can't have a little lovin' with my husband?" Dean shot back. At his son's exasperated groans he finally continued the story. "So, moving on-"

* * *

Dean let out a stifled gasp and fisted the back of Dean's shirt, his head dropping to the space between his neck and shoulder, trying hard to supress his moan. It had been almost an hour now, starting with human sex and now it was purely grace, but Cas was feeling worse and worse as his human, with such a tiny, weak soul in comparison, was starting to lose consciousness at the exposure to his very powerful grace.

"Cas- Cas, I'm...baby, I'm seeing stars," Dean whispered, taking deep breaths as the angel's grace surged within him. "I don't know..maybe not tonight-"

Cas let out a frusterated noise, mostly at himself, as he gave himself just a minute more to continue his search through Dean's soul. Dean looked like he was having a hard time keeping conscious, he was breathing hard and his grip on the man's shoulders began to loosen. "Cas-"

The angel couldn't believe it when it finally happened. A tiny snag, the smallest of catches that could have been overlooked if he'd been less careful.

Dean gasped, he'd felt the difference too. Beads of sweat were exuding from his cheeks.

Cas let his instincts take over, as his whole self began to pool around the one spot. He held his grace there as long as he could until it began to get too hot, he somehow knew that this was how the soul would be pliable enough to break of a piece without death.

"Dean." Cas ran his hands through the hairs on the back of his head. His grace tugged at his soul, trying to find purchase, searching for a seam to pull at. Dean hissed out a breath. The grace in one ultrahot spot like that fucking  _hurt_.

"Dean, give yourself to me. Let go." Cas's grace nudged again, trying to take a piece for itself. He felt something soften and he pulled, but the soul was still resisting.

"Cas," Deans voice was strained. "Take it out. Please."

"Let go, Dean." Cas prompted gently. "I love you. You can trust me."

The angel realized why it had taken so long, trying almost everyday and it still wasn't working. Dean couldn't let go, not after everything his soul had been through.

"I love you, and I want a family so bad, Cas." Dean replied, and right when he pressed his lips to the angel's, Cas felt a sudden change as something very different happened. The piece came loose, and Cas's eyes flew wide as his grace rushed into the seams.

Cas receded, but this time was different. Instead of snapping back into his own body, with nothing but himself, a tiny piece of Dean had allowed itself to dislodge, and tendrils had greedily wrapped around it and dragged it back into Cas's body. Dean gasped as he felt the piece leave.

Cas was astonished, collapsing down onto the mattress.

"Fuck," Dean breathed, cringing. His soul was throbbing around the tiny absent piece. "Cas," Dean said, his eyes still fluttering as he tried to come back to full consciousness again. "I...something was different this time."

Cas licked his lips and took a second before he answered. "Dean," He said quietly, reaching out and running his fingers through his short hairs. "I..I believe..."

Dean laughed elatedly and led Cas's hand down to cup his cheek, layering his hand on top. "Fuck, Cas. I-really? Think it worked this time?

Cas blushed. "I...I have to ask Gabriel to be certain. But I think so."

Dean kissed him again, and Cas felt something stir in his chest as Dean pressed close to the newly mixing grace. Cas let out a noise of surprise and Dean immediately pulled away. "What? Is something wrong?"

Cas shook his head, but his hand flew to the spot where he'd felt the squirm. "I think it recognized your soul being close to it." He pressed his palm to the skin on his chest, and it was hotter than normal. Just like Gabriel said it would be.

Cas didn't see how this could be anything else. Dean's soul had finally given up a small piece for him, and as they spoke Cas felt the peice changing from a light that was pure Dean into something else, saturated in Cas's grace. This must be the mixing process Gabriel had also told him about.

"Why are you calling him an 'it'?" Dean asked, pressing his own hand to the hot skin on Cas's chest. "It's nice to see you again, Jamie." Dean whispered, bending down and kissing the warm skin, and Cas blushed furiously.

...

"Yup." Gabriel couldn't help but laugh at his little brother's expression as he patted his shoulder, Cas was sitting up on the dining table with his shirt unbuttoned, Gabriel had just felt the spot of skin to see if it really was what he thought it was. "You've got a bun in the oven, baby on board, yada yada."

Cas touched the skin on his chest gingerly, biting his lip. "Gabe-" He started in a voice much more child-like than he would have hoped, hanging his head as his hands curled together.

"I know." The archangel sighed. "Now comes the hard part." He patted his back. "You can hop down now."

Cas began buttoning up his shirt, his face pulled into a frown. "Will anything happen to James?"

Gabriel frowned. "I don't think so. But let me tell you, at the end of it, it isn't going to be a walk in the park." He flicked his blade into his hand, staring at it as he twisted it in the light. "I'm going to have to use this. To cut him out of you, Cassie. It's going to take all the energy I have just to keep you from dying."

The angel swallowed and ran a thumb over the skin on his chest. "I-I am willing to do anything for my family."

Gabe smiled sadly. "I know you will, baby bro. I know." He retracted his blade and turned around. "It's not an easy road either. Recovery's going to be tough."

Cas nodded somberly. "Anything."

He didn't expect to feel arms and six golden wings around him. "You don't get enough credit, baby bro." He pulled away and was smirking at him.

"I can't wait to see what kind of weird cravings you get." Gabriel laughed. "I know Dean here's gonna take great care of you."

Dean took Cas's hand and kissed the cold metal band of the wedding ring. "Damn right I will."

Just then Henry came pattering into the room, his arms held over his head, asking to be picked up. He stopped at Gabe's ankles and bobbed up and down, his high-pitched voice repeating "Up! Up, dada, up!"

"Ah! There's my little peice of candy." Gabriel laughed, pulling the toddler into his arms easily, so that he was sitting on one arm as Gabe gently cradeled his back with the other arm. "Wanna know some good news, baby?"

The brown-haired kid nodded, looking at Dean and Cas with wide green-blue eyes.

"You're gonna get a baby cousin soon." Gabriel smiled at him. "Aren't you excited?"

"I don't want to have to share my toys." Henry pouted.

Gabriel laughed very hard. "I raised him right, eh? Well, I'm off to do some shopping. Call me if Cas starts wanting some pickles or lemons or ice cream. Or all three mixed in a gigantic vat. You know, whatever floats baby bro's boat."

Dean held Cas close by one arm as he rolled his eyes. "Sure. See ya, Gabe."

Once the archangel had left the room, Dean turned to Cas again. His eyes were wide and blue and obviously scared. Dean closed his eyes and cradeled the sides of Cas's face in his hands, pressing their foreheads together.

"Gabe won't let anything bad happen to you. You know that." He said in a low voice, gently smudging Cas's stubbly cheek with his thumb. "It's gonna be okay."

"I know." Cas replied, closing his eyes and just letting Dean's touch comfort him. There was a very long silence as Dean found himself smudging away tears that had started to fall from the angel's eyes. "We're having a baby, Dean." He sniffed in disbelief.

* * *

Dean touched the corner of his eye a little re-telling the story in the living room. James opened his mouth to say something but Dean quickly threw up his hand to stop him. "No. Shut up. I just got a piece of dust in my eye, okay?"

"And we most definitely did not engage in intercourse after we heard the news." Cas added, with a tiny nod, like he actually thought his boys would fall for it.

"Nope!" Dean chuckled. "Remember kids, we've never had sex ever. Only the mojo stuff and that was  _never_  just for fun." Dean's voice was so heavy with sarcasm it actually hurt his kid's ears.

"They're  _infants_ , Dean." The angel reminded him again.

"I know, I know." Dean laughed back, pressing his lips to his and quickly pulling away with a loud smack.

"Can you  _not_?" Robbie rolled his eyes, but they crinkled up in the corners with laughter. "And what about us?"

"Oh, you two." Dean smiled at his eighteen-year-olds. "Well, let's say things were a little different with you two."

Cas was red as a beet. "Dean.  _Edited_ , remember?" He asked him quietly. "I know." Dean chuckled, squeezing his hand. "Well, I'll start with when James was born, okay?"

* * *

Cas stirred slightly, finally, after almost half an hour of pure exhaustion. Dean was immediately by his side, he pushed his fingers through his damp hair as the angel rattled out a deep breath. "Dean..." His voice was husky from the screaming.

Dean reached out his hand and clasped Cas's clammy one, smoothing his thumb over the back of his hand. "Hey. Shhh. Relax, everything's okay."

"James.." Castiel moaned, and Dean gently squeezed the hand he was holding.

"He's fine, Cas. He's sleeping, Sam's watching over him. I wanted you to rest." He ran his hand through his hair again and felt tears prick in his ducts. "You did such a great job, baby."

Cas moaned and leaned into Dean's palm, which had slid down to cup his cheek. "...Deal?" He rasped out, and his cheek felt much too clammy to Dean's touch.

"No Deal." Dean shook his head. "Gabriel said he wouldn't be able to save you from all the fallout like Lucifer had, but he did everything he could."

The angel rattled out a relieved sigh and Dean wrapped his arms around him, holding his shoulders up as he began to slump forward into him. "I'm proud of you, baby. You were so strong."

A little bit of Cas's exhausted grace managed to lift and the little flamy arm reached out and lightly touched Dean's soul, not in the usual sexual way but the kind of small action that just reminded Dean that Cas was okay, that there was nothing to worry about, and that Dean's soul was still his.

"There you are, Cas." Dean said happily, and the little lick of white fire dropped back immediately after the faint touch, and Cas nuzzled deep into Dean's chest. Dean thought for the millionth time how strange it was that his husband was quite literally nothing more than a blazing white light, and when he touched his soul like that...it felt unreal. The fact that they knew each other, really knew each other's pure selves, not just the blood and bones that caged in their pure, stripped-down self..

Dean reciprocated with a weak touch of his own, feeling Cas's large grace shiver with unexpected happiness.

"You're learning." The angel finally graveled out more than one word, and Dean smiled into the head of hair as he went and kissed it.

"Well, I've been practicing." He laughed and smoothed down Cas's back, his hand twitching a little bit in surprise as the met the glossy black feathers of his wings. He hadn't noticed he'd pulled them out.

"You need some help?" Dean asked, running his fingers down and feeling for the pouches of oil. They were probably only an eighth full, he guessed by the size of the swelling beneath the down. He was getting good at judging things like this now. He had realized a long time ago that a regular ol' human-human relationship would just be too weird for him. He felt cheesy thinking it, but he loved Cas and all the quirks and what made him different. It kept life interesting. And he loved how happy his mate got when he finally did something obscurely angelic, perfectly.

Cas obviously had not pulled out his wings to have assistance with his oil glands, and Dean wondered why..

He felt the feathers press to his back and shoulders, the familiar bird-like muscles pressing against his shoulder blades.

Oh. He was giving him a hug.

"Thank you, Cas." Dean smiled and breathed the words into his neck. Sometimes Dean wished he were an angel too, so he could give Cas what he was missing. But usually after he had those thoughts, he ignored them. He didn't need to be an angel and Cas didn't need to be a human for them to be a perfect fit.

When James had been completely planned, and really tried for, the next two were not.

Dean's back slammed into the wall, a loud audible crack could be heard as he dented the drywall.

They'd both had a little too much to drink. Dean was hammered and Cas was even more hammered, considering how much it even took to get an angel that drunk.

Cas pressed hard against him in a very sloppy, very drunk kiss, every part of his body pressed hard against Dean, their cocks both hard and pressed together for a few seconds before Cas gripped Dean's shoulders, there was a loud audible tear as he ripped the seam down the back of his jacket, ripping him away from the wall once again and slamming him down onto the bed.

"Dean," His tongue felt heavy in his mouth as he crouched over Dean, every muscle in his body tense like he was crouching over prey. "Illoveyuu, but imgonna  _tear_  you apart."

"Bring it the fuckkkon, sweetheart." Dean slurred back, and was met with what he could only describe as a punch to the mouth with Cas's own, kissing him so hard that Dean felt like his mouth might be bruised in the morning.

Dean gripped hard onto Cas's shoulders, his hands perched and claw-like, and the angel wasted no time shoving his whole self into Dean's soul with one harsh push.

Dean whimpered out at the blinding pain he felt on entry and sunk his teeth into Cas's shoulder, his hands clawing down his bare back. It didn't hurt him anymore when Cas eased into it, gently reaching out and pushing in slowly, but Dean gasped in pain as Cas had coiled up himself and  _pushed_.

"Cas," He slurred out, the back of his head digging into his pillow as his pale neck extended and the angel wasted no time covering the smooth surface with sloppy kisses. They were both so drunk they probably wouldn't remember this in the morning.

Dean moaned and bucked up against Cas's hips when he smelled that sweet scent of his oil, knowing full well what was coming next. His fingers felt fat and heavy as he fumbled with his shirt, undoing the buttons, giving up halfway through, and ripping the shirt off with an outward pull of his chest as he tossed it aside, sitting up and wrapping his arms around Cas's neck, kissing him hard and working his mouth open and closed.

The angel actually growled when he ganked down his jeans. Dean gasped out as Cas roughly flipped him onto his stomach, and smiled as he felt his dick throbbing.

"Damn. You know just how to do me, baby, don't you?" There was a moment of tenderness as he felt Cas's palms full of smooth, clean wing-oil clumsily massage down from Dean's shoulderblades all the way down his back, right next to his spine, Dean shivered with pleasure as his hands slipped over his lower back with warm, very sweet-smelling oil.

Things that happened next were a blur for both of them. Dean moaned something unintelligible, and Cas gripped his hipbones tight. Dean felt a jolt down his spine, he cried out loudly at the first oil-slippery push that went deep enough the first time. They were both rocking back and forth, Cas thrust deeper and deeper with each push, a crushing grip on Dean's hips as he pulled his mate further into him. Dean cried out as he hit his prostate, gripping the sheets tight and biting his lip so hard he drew blood. He saw a black wing in front of his face, and when the angel came inside him he bit down on the wing so hard he felt some of the feathers break into his mouth.

Cas's soul began to make its exit, and Dean slurred for him to not leave. "Not that," He said pointedly. "I want your grace. Give it to me. Deep as you can."

Dean's soul was suddenly bursting full of him again, and Dean fisted the sheets tight, screaming out with pain this time. It was nothing like he'd ever felt before, he felt his soul being blown up from the inside, past its capacity, he could have sworn it tore a little. His head swam, but not in a good way this time. Cas noticed immediately he'd gone too far and snapped guiltily back into his own body within a second, leaving Dean's soul to quiver and throb with the quickness at which he'd done everything. Dean felt exhausted and the world was fuzzy and  _fuck_ , his soul hurt. And he told himself he was never, ever,  _ever_  going to drink again.

...

Dean woke up the next morning with what felt like a hangover times a hundred. His head was pounding, and he felt queazy. And that was only from the alcohol.

His soul felt absolutely ravaged. It was aching even now, pulsing with a soul-deep kind of pain. "Cas," He called out, angry at the loud volume of his own wheezy voice. Last night had been a total blur.

Dean spat out the feathery bits that were still left in his mouth as groaned as his soul throbbed painfully. He was only a human, he wasn't quite built to withstand the whole power of an angel's grace with the angel's way of reproduction.

"I was too harsh with you." Cas scolded himself, reaching up and smoothing down Dean's forehead. His hand felt so cold, and Dean moaned slightly and his head lolled to the side.

"Fuckkk," Dean hissed out as his soul throbbed painfully again.

"I'm sorry, Dean. I didn't hold back like I usually do." The angel's voice was full of guilt. "I didn't leave any leftover in my vessel this time."

"I think it tore a little." Dean spoke up, his words much more of a mumble than he'd intended. "My  _soul_. Fuck, Cas, it hurts."

The angel was completely silent as he smoothed down Dean's damp and sweaty hair, curling his fingers along the nape of his neck. Cas shuddered out a breath before speaking up again.

"Dean. Last night...you let go of a few pieces of your soul." He started, licking his lips and dragging his thumb along a pulse point on the back of his neck. "Dean, I'm pregnant."

Dean's whole body jolted as his eyes flew open and he sat up. "Shit." He said, rubbing his eyes and looking into Cas's afraid blue ones. "I mean, shit Cas. What's going to happen to you?"

The angel slipped his eyes closed and shook his head silently. "I don't know. I don't know if my soul will have an even harder time birthing them this time."

Dean shot up in bed and gripped Cas's arm. "Them, Cas? What the hell are you talking about,  _them_?"

The angel smiled shyly. "I don't know how or why...last night was a blur for me as well. But...there are two individual pieces of grace inside me."

Dean ran a hand down his face, frowning. " _Twins_? What about you, Cas? What if your grace can't handle another birth? Much less  _two_?" He gently clasped Cas's hands in his. "What are we supposed to do?" He whispered, his lips pulling into a frown.

Cas frowned. "I will speak with Gabriel. He will determine if I am strong enough to keep them."

He began to slide off the edge of the bed to leave Dean in his hungover misery. Dean took his wrist before he could go.

"Wait," He rasped. "Cas, I'm...I'm glad this happened."

The angel's expression softened. "Why?"

"I never wanted James to be an only child." Dean admitted. "Having a brother or sister is one of the best things in the world. I want James to be an older brother."

Cas smiled. "I do too." He sat back down, and Dean wrapped his arm around his torso, gently bringing his fingers down the craggy white scar that already ridged down much of his chest from James's birth. "Are you sure you're going to be okay? It took you a long time to recover last time, baby."

Cas nodded and Dean kissed his shoulder. "Okay." Dean whispered. "Then I'll be okay too."

...

"Well, you can sit up here." Gabriel patted the same old table, and Cas looked overwhelmed as he hopped up on the table and squeezed Dean's hand.

Gabriel put a stethoscope to his ears and grinned at Cas. "Damn, baby bro. You must have really dug deep to get two of of Deano."

Cas blushed feriously. "I..I was drunk and much too harsh with his soul."

"I'll say." Gabriel laughed airily. "God, usually only the angels with the roughest sex wind up with twins. You'll definitely have an image with the other angels now, Cassie." Cas's cheeks burned pink.

Gabriel listened and felt with his hand, uncapping a pen with his teeth and tracing a circle on the angel's chest, the circle just a few inches above his nipple on his right side. Gabriel nodded as he closed the circle, and Cas looked down and touched the warm skin tentatively.

"Well, there's your first one." Gabriel announced, and the look on Cas's face was overwhelmed to say the least.

"The size is perfectly healthy. Nothing to worry about here." Gabriel moved on, feeling for the next indication of the little nodule of grace. He finally found it on the left side, higher on his chest, just barely overlapping onto his collarbone. Gabriel frowned as he measured and drew the second circle. It was much smaller in radius than the first one.

"Okay, so the second one is a little smaller than normal. But they were only concieved last night, right?" Gabriel asked with a trickstery lift of his eyebrow. Cas avoided his brother's eyes and nodded.

"You topped?" He asked Cas, who was trying in vein to hide his very red face. "Come on, Cassie. It's an important question."

Cas mumbled when he spoke up. "It's all a blur. But...I think so. Yes."

Gabriel let out a low whistle. "Damn. Well, congrats on not being the big pussy I thought you were."

Cas looked extremely irritated. "You said it was an important question!" He barked out, angry as Gabriel was laughing hard now.

"Yeah, I lied." Gabriel replied, chuckling a little more at Cas shot him a look that could kill. "C'mon, it's not like I'm going to do this and not poke a little fun!"

He touched the small, penned-in circle again. "Well, if they were only conceived last night, it's normal for one to be a little small. It'll have time to grow to a healthier size, there's no worries." He finally smiled reassuringly at Cas. "Better start shopping in twos. Can you tell their gender yet?"

The angel nodded. "Male. Both of them." Dean squeezed his hand tight when he heard this. Gabe helped wipe away the pen and began to explain more.

"Now, recovery might take a little longer than last time." Gabriel said somberly, cleaning the pen off in circular motions. "You'll definitely feel like total shit for at least two weeks."

Cas nodded silently, accepting the fact. Gabriel saw the thick scar left over from James, when he'd cut Cas open with his blade, and frowned at it. It was the only way he could get the child out so that neither of them would die. The scar was thick, craggy, very ugly and obviously very painful. "We'll have to make two more of those as well."

Cas nodded again. "I'm willing to do that."

Gabriel pulled him into a soft hug. "I'll be here, li'l bro. I won't let anything happen to you, okay?"

Dean helped him down off the table, kissing his ring again.

Cas wrapped his arms around his midsection as Dean began to make breakfast, Cas was humming as he rested his chin on Dean's shoulder. Dean felt the spots of dry warmth pressed to his back and felt so happy that he almost cut himself while he was chopping the tomatoes for an omelette.

Cas wandered off while Dean ate breakfast with Sam, six-year-old Henry, and Fenris. Dean later found him in James's room, cradling the sleepy and droopy child in his arms, James's dark hair was messy as always and he was still wearing his blue pajamas with the little sharks, his favorite.

Cas had his hand on the two-year-old's back, and it took a second for Dean to see that the boy was nuzzled up to one of the hot patches of skin, his chubby cheek pressed to the hot skin and a dreamy smile on the boy's face. He must have loved the warmth just like Dean did. It took Dean even longer to realize Cas was crying. But he didn't seem sad at all, because he was smiling.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right, so this is all I have written so far! I would like to write maybe a chapter or two more and then it will be over! thanks so much for reading! if you have any suggestions for me about what you'd like to see in later chapters feel free to let me know- I will take anything into consideration! :) Thanks so much for reading!

James still felt his mind reeling as he wandered alone throughout the house, his twin brothers had gone who-knows-where. He almost didn't want to believe everything that his parents had explained to him.  _Henry_? Tall, mischievous, big-mouthed, yet gold-hearted Henry was Lucifer's successor? He felt sick just thinking about it again. He felt his stomach swirl a little bit and his face got a little pale.

He moved toward them as he heard voices; he peered into the living room, where Sam and Gabriel were talking with just Henry. The two of them were sitting with him across from them, and James had a clear view of his cousin's face, even though he could only see the backs of Sam and Gabriel's heads.

Henry had an uncharacteristic scowl on his face, as he nodded somberly as the two of his parents talked in low mumbles. Henry looked scared shitless- his cheeks were palid, his eyes kept sliding off to the side and his eyelids would flutter down so that his lashes brushed his cheeks, his head bowing slightly in shame.

"Hey." Jess and her brother JC hissed at James, interrupting his train of thought. They were also eavesdropping just a few feet away from where he was. "Don't give us away, okay?" JC shot him a tricky grin.

James smiled weakly and hid along with them, listening to Henry as he sighed, slouching a little in the chair. Gabriel put his hand on his shoulder. James strained his ears to try and hear what was happening.

"I really...I really did that?" Henry asked in disbelief, he looked scared and confused. He wrung his hands in his lap. "Does that mean that I'm..."

"Not here." Gabriel instantly replied, interupting him. "You and Lucifer are no longer linked."

Henry breathed out a sigh of relief. "Good." He said curtly, clearing not wanting to talk about this anymore. He stood up, shoving his hands deep into his pockets of his coat. "Thanks for telling me. I guess. We're done here, right?" He asked, clearly just wanting to get away.

Sam and Gabriel exchanged glances. Gabriel shrugged. "Yes. Unless you have any questions?"

"Nope." Henry bit his teeth together.

"And JC, Jess, you two can come out now." He said gruffly, peeved, as he went out the front door and slammed it behind him.

The younger sister and brother exchanged guilty glances, Jess put a finger over her mouth as her and the redhead scurried away. James ran as fast as he could through the living room, squeaking out a quick 'sorry!' as he interrupted Gabriel and Sam who has started to make out. He quickly wrenched the door open and went to follow his cousin.

"Henry!" He called out to his cousin's broad-shouldered back as his cousin took long, angry strides down their gravel and dirt driveway. He showed no signs of slowing down.

James sprinted after him, letting the cold air pinch his cheeks as he stretched his legs and tried to catch up as fast as he could. "Henry, dammit, wait!"

The figure finally stopped. Henry spun around, a defeated sagging in his shoulders as he faced James with a weary expression on his usually lively face. His brunette hair had wild, slightly curly flyaways around his cheeks, and his lips were set in an angry line.

James puffed and came to a stop in front of him, frowning too and shoving his hands in his pockets. He tried to make himself look big and defiant, planting his feet firmly shoulder width apart and shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans.

"What." Henry barked.

 _"Well?_ Are you okay?" James demanded, scolding himself for sounding like a mother.

Henry scoffed, a kind of pathetic laugh, and turned partly away. "Leave me alone, Jamie."

James redenned and reached out to grab Henry's arm. "Dude, you don't think this scares me too? They told me...they said it was because of  _me_. Because I would have died if it weren't for Gabriel and he wasn't there, so you made that deal to save my life. Don't you think that fucking scares me too?" He demanded.

Next thing James knew he had his face pressed to soft, pungent flannel and his cousin's big arms were wrapped around his shoulders. James pressed his palms to Henry's back too, sighing as he finally let go.

"Thank Gramps it didn't happen like that this time around." Henry still looked anxious, shoving his hands in his pockets once again. He bit his lower lip. "I'm sorry, I'm just...this is just damn terrifying to me."

"Yeah, I know." James scrubbed the back of his head with his palm. "Just don't shut me out, Henry. Please."

Henry shrugged and his hands fell with a slight smack at his sides. "Sorry, kiddo." He blinked sadly and lowered his eyes to his shoes. "Do the twins know, too?" 

James pressed his lips together and nodded, shoving his hands back into his pockets. "I mean, we're a family. Once the secret's out it's out for everyone." 

"Yeah. Ain't many secrets around here." Henry smiled sadly at James. "You know, I can't believe we did all that. Killed two knights of hell all on our own." 

James's lips finally quirked upward into a grin. "Badass, right?" 

Henry seemed to relax as he smiled back. "Exactly what I was thinking. I mean, hell, even if it was us from an obsolete dimension it was still _us_ , right?" 

"Yeah." James agreed. "We _are_ a couple of badasses." 

"Hell yeah we are," Henry huffed out a laugh. "There's nothing more badass than being satanic." 

James tried very hard to hold back his grin as he punched Henry hard on the shoulder. "Dude, that's not funny, okay?!"

"You thought it was funny."  Henry taunted. "Anyway, all this talk of Lucifer is making me hungry. I gotta get away from the 'rents for now. Want to come hit up the candy shop with me?" 

"Only it's the one with that pie bakery next door." James grinned. 

"You are your father's kid." Henry nudged his shoulder with his as they two began walking side-by-side down the driveway. 

"Look who's talking!" 

"Alright, alright." Henry then stopped and offered his slightly bent arm out for James to latch his arm around. "And no turbulence when we fly out this time, okay?" 

"You're always the one who's causing it and you know it!" James rolled his eyes. 

"I have six wings and you have two. It's not rocket science to figure out who the better flier is here, Jimmy." 

" _Oh, you can take those six wings of yours and shove them up your a-!_ " 

The two of them disappeared with a quick whirlwind that rustled a few of the dead brown leaves that were littering the driveway. 

And James found out the hard way that yelling "ass" into a candy store full of small children and their parents was not exactly the best way to go. 

 


End file.
